Marsyas - Pieces Of Favour (1983)

There is no reason to complain for the lack of variety in the contemporary rock scene. The dominating trends change from season to season and besides the heavy metal groups and new wave music there is enough space for all kinds of different styles.

During the last decades of the rock history we experienced a whole bunch of them. The musical roots of Marsyas are linked with the musical innovations of the late 60's — especially with the groups that brought together electric rock and folk heritage — as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young or the Fairport Convention — and most directly with Bob Dylan.

Zuzana Michnova and Petr Kalandra, the founder members of the group, went through similar development as many of their folk-rock centemporaries. First they played in local teenage rock bands and later they started their career in the folk circuit.

This happened in 1972. At that time Marsyas consisted of three members, accompanying themselves on two acoustic guitars. Five years later came their first album which showed the group in a slightly different light, with a rock backing set-up using a Fender piaho, drums, electric guitar and bass and additiohal instruments. With the exception of two songs the whole LP introduced original material by the members of the group.

Marsyas went through a major change in 1978; the personnel featured two new members. Pavel Skala emerged soon as one of the most promising players who could easily switch between acoustic and electric guitar. Jiri Vondracek, the fourth member of the band, is a talented singer, guitar player and a younger brother of Helena Vondrackova, a popular singer of the Czech mainstream pop. With this personnel Marsyas produced their second album Pieces of Favour.

The concerts of the band as well as this LP is composed mainly of songs written by vocalist and the leading force of the group Zuzana Michnova. Petr Kalandra is an expert on blues, folk tunes and Bob Dylan songs and on this record he performs James Taylor's Fire and Rain.

During 1981 Vondracek joined a straightforward rock band called Turbo and was replaced by a young conservatory of music graduate Jaroslav Nejezchleba who plays cello and electric bass.

This album was recorded with the help of some of the best players of the Prague rock scene — Jiri Vesely and Petr Pokorny from the Etc ... — and with Jiri Hrubes who plays in the new-wave band of the keyboard player Michael Kocab and seems to be the busiest drummer in town.

- Источник оцифровки: автор новости (plastinka aka nickhome)
- Тип сохранности винила: EX+
- Проигрыватель: Victor QL-Y44F
- Картридж (звукосниматель): Goldring Elite
- Предварительный усилитель (фонокорректор): Musical Fidelity MX-VYNL
- АЦП: Tascam DA-3000 (DSD)
- Обработка: без обработки