Dunaj

Dunaj, alternative music group from Brno. From 1989 until 1998.
The beginnings of the music group Dunaj were in the nineteen-eighties under the name "Kolektiv" with fluctuating members, which emerged from the duo Iva Bittová (violin, vocals) and Pavel Fajt (drums).
Kolektiv first attracted attention with their concert on the festival Rockfest in 1986 with the following members: Josef Ostřanský (guitar), Vladimír Václavek (bass guitar, guitar), Pavel Richter (guitar), Pavel Fajt (drums), Jiří Kolšovský (vocals) a Iva Bittová (vocals). Later there followed just a few concerts due to the engagement of the musicians in their many other projects.
The first recording was released in 1989 by Panton, who first was interested to release another record by the duo Bittova & Fajt (based on the success of their LP from 1988 which received the price "Record of the Year"). But they didn..t have a new program prepared, therefor Panton offered to record some older songs by Kolektiv instead. The name was changed to the better sounding "Dunaj" (engl. Danube), it was planned as a short time project with the aim to record an album and play a few concerts. Their shows were quite a success, mainly due to their unusual musical expression.
Bittová kept her word and left Dunaj after a year, concentrating on her solo career. Also Pavel Richter left the band, who..s guitar parts were taken over by Jiří Kolšovský, who also became singer and frontman of the group. On the following album Rosol, released in 1991, we can also hear the keyboarder Zdeněk Plachý, who at this time played with Dunaj for a short period.
The lyrics where written by Vladimír Kokolia, Karel David, Pavel Fajt and Vladimír Václavek.
First, Dunaj was classified as Art Rock, later it received the label "Brno Alternative Scene", as part of which where seen lots of bands from Brno playing in a similar style.
In the spring of 1991 the band officiallybroke up, during 1992 it was renewed and in1993 released the album "Dudlay" in a newand final setup: Jiří Kolšovský (guitar,vocals), Josef Ostřanský (guitar), VladimírVáclavek (bassguitar, accoustic guitar) andPavel Koudelka (drums).
The sound of the band had changed again,mainly with Pavel Koudelka joining the band,who..s playing style was completely differentfrom the playful drumming of Pavel Fajt.Fajt used a big drumset and created forrockmusic untypical, colourful soundscapes.Koudelka used a minimal drumset (justbassdrum, snare, hihat and a china-splash)with playing much less notes.
The band reached during the first half ofthe nineteen-nineties almost a status of acult band in Czech Republic, and releasedanother two albums, IV. and Lalalai. In 1995 Dunaj was joined by Iva Bittová andPavel Fajt again, to form a project called"Pustit Musis". They re-recorded their firstalbum togehter with some new songs andtoured together.
With the band members concentrating more andmore on side- or solo projects, the bandofficially split up in 1998. To name some ofthe projects: Rale, E, Ylo Africky Slon,BOO, Vaclavek solo, Bittova & Vaclavek,...
In 1998 Jiří Kolšovský died in Brno.
Dunaj was revived in 2002 for a fewconcerts, the part of the singer wasperformed by Václav Bartoš (Pluto, Fru Fru).