Amber Rails

Saxophonist and composer Lubos Soukup is one of the most prominent figures in Czech modern jazz. Based in Copenhagen since 2010, he is now moving back to Czechia after more than fifteen years and, to mark his return, releases an album, entitled Amber Rails, with his new all-Czech band and presenting his compositions inspired by gospel, blues and modern jazz. Soukup has founded and been the leader of several international collectives, mostly with a strong Danish or Scandinavian element, and has released more than ten albums of his original music. His other releases on the Animal Music label in recent years have included the successful album Zeme (Earth, 2017), featuring guest guitarist Lionel Loueke; the free-jazz album Christiania (2020), on which Soukup performs with the Czech-Danish Freetown Quartet; Levitas (2020), featuring German pianist Christian Pabst; and Machina Mundi (2022), recorded with the eponymous Scandinavian formation and featuring analogue synthesizers. Amber Rails is Soukup's first purely Czech project in a long time, featuring pianist Jiri Levicek, double bassist and composer Jaromir Honzák (whom Soukup dubs an 'honorary godfather of Czech jazz') and Jakub svejnar on drums, who is a foremost member of the experimental and free-jazz scenes. Guitarists David Doružka and Casper Hejlesen join the line-up as guests, with Hejlesen representing a connection with the Danish scene, which was Lubos Soukup's second home for more than fifteen years. One of the pieces is dedicated to Marilyn Mazur, a drummer, percussionist and a longtime collaborator of Miles Davis, who was an important influence on Soukup and from whose hands he received the prestigious Discovery of the Year prize at the 2017 Danish Music Association (Dansk Musiker Forbund).