Return to Michal Pavlicek in Stromboli, 1987, and Shutdown,1989

 

You might recall Michal Pavlicek's wonderful material recorded long ago for the Mini Jazz Klub EPs. I posted it here and commented on how great those compositions were from him (that one was released in 1983).   He went on to make a great deal of electric guitar music sometimes with some progressive elements, and that great piece Tvari v Tvar (translated as Face to Face) was reused subsequently quite a few times on other CDs.

From the first Stromboli, a track called Aladin clearly gives you an idea of his progressive dimensions:

The 2nd album called Shutdown, from 1989, has female vocals (Bara Basikov) and is a little bit more commercial, though a lot of it recalls the alternative music that would soon sweep the world, showing they had a feeling for the zeitgeist, here's the title track:

 

Some really remarkable Steve Vai-like guitar playing on that one with the atonal bends, oddly mixed with classical or operatic elements here too.

His work on his own even up until recent times is well worth hearing too, a rarity as an artist who never gave up that uncompromising progressive spirit. I confess I haven't heard even a slight portion of it all, and he moved into writing soundtrack stuff too, but what I did hear sounded pretty good.