Vojtěch Havel, the prominent Czech cellist who played with his wife as Irena & Vojtěch Havels, has died, his label Music of the Animals confirms. His death from heart failure on October 21 followed a recent tour of the Faroe Islands, which was set to lead to more dates behind this year's Four hands LP. Vojtěch Havel was 62 years old.
Irena & Vojtěch Havels made acoustic ambient music that drew from American minimalism, European early music and Eastern philosophies, notes Czech writer Pavel Klusák in an obituary. They emerged from what was then Czechoslovakia in the 1980s as part of the Capella Antiqua e Moderna project. “In the vast echo of Prague's Gothic and Baroque churches,” writes Klusák, “Havels' minimal music flew and crashed against the walls in a grand orchestration of trombone, double bass, flute, organ, strings, voices.”
On a trip to Czechoslovakia in the late 1980s, Bryce Dessner's sister heard the pair playing on the street and bought their record Little Blue Nothing. When Dessner formed the pre-National band Clogs, the album became “one of our favorite records of all time,” he told Pitchfork in 2006. “Minimal and haunting.” Dessner tracked them down to perform with Clogs on a US tour, later putting together a string quartet tribute Little Blue Thingwhich hindered some of the duet's themes.
As Irena & Vojtěch Havels, the pair went on to record many more albums and gain international recognition, including an invitation by Sufjan Stevens to Ohio's MusicNow festival. Various collections—as of 2021 Melodies in the Sandcollected by Jonny Nash for the context tag Melody as truth— reworked their classics for new fans, ahead of this year's Four handstheir first album of new material in 14 years.
In Little Blue NothingVincent Moon's documentary about the couple, Irena Havlová says, “It took us years to realize that we arrived on Earth with a peaceful mind. In fact we were not interested in everything in the world and rest. We didn't have the usual everyday desires that people generally have.” Vojtěch Havel adds, “When we feel that space and people are playing with us, it is the most beautiful moment. It's like you disappear.”
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