E was a Czech

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, wit ...

group from

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

active between 1984 and 1997. Their music fell into the wider scope of

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...

, underground, and

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

rock genres.

Background

Josef Ostřanský and Vladimír Václavek were known from the band Dunaj and from their collaboration with singer

Iva Bittová Iva Bittová (born 22 July 1958) is a Czech avant-garde violinist, singer, and composer. She began her career as an actor in the mid-1970s, appearing in several Czech feature films, but switched to playing violin and singing in the early 1980s ...

. The band's frontman was singer and lyricist

Vladimír Kokolia Vladimír Kokolia (born 27 November 1956) is a Czech contemporary painter. Kokolia has also worked across a variety of other mediums, most notably printmaking and drawing, and is also a poet and musician. Academic work Kokolia was educated at t ...

, known primarily as a painter, graphic artist, and cartoonist; he went on to work as the head teacher of graphic studio 2 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. The band's music was based upon mutually interlocking riffs of both instrumentalists, forming elaborate loops together with simple but sophisticated

cross-rhythm In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term ''cross rhythm '' was introduced in 1934 by the Musicology, musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to a situation where the rhythmic conflict fou ...

s. Kokolia's role consisted of very expressive declamations of imaginative and metaphorical existentialist lyrics, often with sarcastic humour. Onstage, both guitarists were also equipped with a simple drum kit (

snare SNARE proteins – "Soluble NSF attachment protein, SNAP REceptors" – are a large protein family consisting of at least 24 members in yeasts and more than 60 members in mammalian and plant cells. The primary role of SNARE proteins is to m ...

kick drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The hea ...

, tom, and

hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock music, rock, popular music, pop, jazz, an ...

) and played those instruments simultaneously while Kokolia sometimes operated the foot electronic percussion rug. Two recorded albums represent only a part of the band's repertoire.

Former members

– vocals, percussion * Josef Ostřanský – guitar, percussion * Vladimír Václavek – bass guitar, guitar, percussion

Discography

* ''E'' (Live, 1990) * ''I Adore Nothing (I Believe It Does Not Exist)'' (1994)

References

External links

E song lyrics
{{Authority control Czech post-punk music groups Czech alternative rock groups Czech experimental music groups Czech underground music groups Czech experimental rock groups Musical groups from Brno Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1997 1984 establishments in Czechoslovakia 1997 disestablishments in the Czech Republic