Pavel Fajt - Drum Trek (2001)

Pavel Fajt (ur. 26 grudnia 1957 w Brnie) jest czeskim awangardowym muzykiem, perkusistą i producentem.

Należy do grupy alternatywnych nurtów muzycznych, na granicach world music, art-rocka, folk-rocka oraz eksperymentalnej muzyki elektrofonicznej. Występuje od czasów studiów na politechnice w Brnie. Najbardziej znane są jego występy z pieśniarzem Václavem Koubkiem oraz Ivą Bittovą, z którą występował najpierw w duecie, a później w trio Kolektiv, z którego powstała grupa Dunaj. Odegrała ona znaczącą rolę pod koniec lat 80. do początku lat 90 XX wieku. Z Ivą Bittovą występował na wielu koncertach w Europie i poza jej granicami. Był też producentem kilku jej solowych płyt.

Od roku 1992 występuje samodzielnie. Oprócz rozbudowanego zestawu perkusji korzysta też z jednego lub dwóch kręgów akustycznych (metalowy elektrofoniczny instrument o kształcie kręgu z kilkoma strunami podłączony do aparatury z efektami dźwiękowymi).

Z inicjatywy Pavla Fajta powstał również festiwal muzyczny Zlot perkusistów, który odbywa się co roku. (wikipedia)

Pavel Fajt is an exceptionally prolific drummer, percussionist and composer hailing form Brno in the Czech Republic. He has been active on the Czech music scene since the early '80s when he began composing music for dance and theater in collaboration with the Husa Na Provázku Theater. In 1983 he became a professional musician performing with groups such as Nucleus, Manana, and Jeste jsme se nedohodli. That same year he also became a founding member of the band Dunaj (originally named "Collective"), who produced six albums before they disbanded in 1990. In 1985 he began collaborating as a duo with Iva Bittová. The work of the duo attracted the attention of avant-garde guitarist Fred Frith, with whom he participated in the Mimi Festival in France in 1988. Fajt soon came into the focus of Western audiences via his appearance in the film and on the soundtrack (with Bittová) of Frith's Step Across the Border of 1990.

The 1990s began for Fajt with the project Joseph Boys with Vladimír Václavek and Marcus Therofal (of The Blech). Fajt soon embarked upon another duo, this time with American drummer Jim Meneses (producing the CD Songs for the Drums). In '93 he began performing as a solo improviser, working with the usual drums and percussion, as well as with voice and electronics, when he was invited to participate in a festival for solo performers in Geneva. He also worked on music for film and theater this same year (Ctibor Turba in Prague and Christine de Smedt in Belgium). In '94 Fajt toured with Anna Homler and Geert Waegeman and also with Mikolás Chadima. The former creative incarnation produced two albums that are quite breathtaking, Macaronic Sines and Corne de Vache; the latter the album Transparent People. In 1995 he formed the band Pluto who released two albums; the first of these was self titled (1996), the second (1998) titled Tri. The end of the decade found him working for theater again.

In 2000 Fajt became an assistant on faculty of Fine Arts in Brno (sound installations, acoustic, media). The first record he worked on for the new century was the eponymous cd by The Danubians, with Amy Denio, Csaba Hajnocy and Gabi Kenderesi of Hungary's Dolores Kampec, which was released by the American label Cuneiform Records. He once again participated in numerous duos - with Wendy Zulu, Stepanida Borisova, and Vaclav Cilek to name just a few. From 2000 through 2008 he was the leader of the project The Gathering of Drummers, an international meeting of percussionists from across the globe who gather in a one-week workshop to "create a unique and specific art forms - a composition of 10 drum sets and percussive instruments, eventually adding melodic instruments". Afterwards the project is presented live. "Organizers promote new, innovative art - using contrasts between different musical genres (jazz-classical-world music-alternative music-ambient, etc.), and between each musician's natural feeling based on their respective roots ..." The group has released two CDs - a self-titled double disk released in 2004 on the Indies label, and Drumming Brew, also on Indies, released in 2006/2009; as well as a DVD entitled Gathering of Drummers in 2008. Throughout most of the decade he was also a member of the band Autopilote who released a CD entitled IDO on the EMI label in 2008. In 2009 he was a member of the improvising group Mia Zabelka Trio. Fajt's current band is the Pavel Fajt Drummers, a multi-ethnic band whose music is based on rhythms and grooves.

Fajt's sensibility towards his work is very elemental, as is his sensibility toward all music, "Even if I don't like some music, I like the truth [in it] because it's the essence, and it inspires me to find the essence in myself." This has manifested itself in many different forms over the years from high energy art rock that can kick hard, to ethnic forms which resonate with the sense of a very distinctive ancient intimacy; to RIO that is indicative of an avant attitude; one aimed at the multifarious possibilities within the creative exploration of numerous genres and their various voices. Fajt treats each object from which he draws sound with the acute awareness of discovery. His solo improvisations explore the elemental nature of the roots of sound and music which he consistently returns to, often via their ethnic expression, as if coming home; while at the same time incorporating a well versed jazz and/or post-jazz vocabulary. For Fajt, the aim is doubtless - to explore and create the "essence of rhythm." (progarchives)