Jiří Wehle - (2007) Zpívaná Poesie

 Not On Label ‎– none

He has been involved with music from his youth, he started with rock n' roll, after which he turned to folk and to Celtic music. In the eighties he had a band for which he wrote songs – usually music set to texts by Czech and foreign poets, as well as texts by his Father with whom he published a song book entitled "Songs of Our Family".
In the nineties his involvement with music grew and ultimately he left his former teaching profession to dedicate more time to playing music and to older musical instruments, which he also began to collect and play. For a number of years he worked as a street musician – primarily on Charles Bridge, at first with his friend Petr Opava an oboe player and later, alone, as a solo musician.
You can still run into him in the streets today – mainly in Nerudova street and at Malé náměstí in Prague. Over time he developed an interest in Medieval and ethnic musical instruments, initially in the Indian sitar and later on other string instruments (cittern, guittern, bouzouki, psalterium, etc...) Thereafter he also worked with wind instruments (recorders, shawms, crumhorns, schalmei, Bohemian bagpipes). Eventually he acquired a hurdy gurdy which in essence has become his key specialty and today he is practically a virtuoso in the playing of this unusual instrument.
However the hurdy gurdy is not the last instrument he was to acquire – it was followed by a small harp and will most likely be followed by other instruments yet. With each new instrument, new songs were written – some of which you will find in this collection. The recording includes both entirely new songs as well as older songs which he has come back to and to which he has given a new sound and musical arrangement.
Jiří Wehle founded several musical bands (Cantores Bohemiae, Jagabab, W.O.H.). At the present time he leads the band W.O.H and cooperates with other musicians and bands (for example German group Tippellklimper and Czech Piosenki). He also performs at castles, fairs and many historical events here and abroad.