Kaleidoscapes

The unique musical formation Hlaskontrabas Oktet, consisting of four female singers and four double bassists, releases a new "Nordic" album called Kaleidoscapes. The album, which was recorded last summer in Iceland and then in the fall at Sono Records studios in the Czech Republic, takes the listener on a musical journey through landscapes that are mysterious, fragile, wild and beautifully melancholic. The nine compositions have been written directly for Hlaskontrabas by leading contemporary composers from Norway (Mats Eilertsen, Nils Økland), Iceland (Ragnheiður Gröndal and Guðmundur Pétursson, Pétur Þór Benediktsson), Israel (Adam Ben Ezra) and the Czech Republic (Petr Wajsar, Beata Hlavenková). Ridina Ahmedová and Petr Tichý, the founders of the band, also contributed each by one piece to the album. Ridina says about the recording: „Often you record one instrument at a time, but we chose the path of playing together, live. This way the record gives the listener the right 'live' feeling."
Hlaskontrabas Oktet was formed in 2019 as an extension of the original duo project founded by Czech vocalist, composer and performer Ridina Ahmedová and double bassist and composer Petr Tichý. At the very beginning of the idea to expand the duo to four voices and four double basses was the idea to use live musicians instead of a looper, which Ridina and Petr used to layer tracks over each other in concerts, and to bring their own musical soul to the songs. But it turned out that writing pieces directly for the octet offered the opportunity to arrange and think musically in a completely different way. And the octet soon started to live on its own. A vibrant, unique and inspiring life.
The song Funkle, which was released as the first single, was also accompanied by a documentary video from the octet´s journey to Iceland. The second single, which will be released on April 12, is the track Mysterious Ride by Israeli double bassist Adam Ben Ezra.