(UTC)
| Karel Kryl | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Born | April 12, 1944 Kroměříž, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia[1] |
| Died | March 3, 1994 (aged 49) Passau, Germany[2] |
| Genres | folk, Protest song |
| Occupations | poet, Singer-songwriter, musician, graphic artist |
| Instruments | guitar, |
| Years active | 1968–1994 |
| Labels | Supraphon, Primaphon, Caston, Bonton, And the End Records |
| Website | [1] |
Karel Kryl (April 12, 1944 Kroměříž – March 3, 1994 Passau) was a popular Czech singer-songwriter and performer of many protest songs in which he strongly criticized and identified the shortcomings and inhumanity of the Communist and later post-communist regime in his home country.
Contents |
Kryl was born on April 12, 1944, in Kroměříž, in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, (now Czechia). He was the son of Karel Kryl and Marie Krylová. His father owned a printing business, which was confiscated from the family in 1948 after the communist takeover.[2] Kryl wanted to be a potter studied at an industrial secondary school specialising in ceramics, graduating in 1962.
Kryl moved to Prague in 1968 as an assistant at Czechoslovak Television. In his spare time he performed his songs in numerous small clubs. When the Warsaw Pact armies occupied Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968, to suppress the Prague Spring reform movement, Kryl released his album Bratříčku zavírej vrátka (Close the Gate, Little Brother), as a reaction to the occupation. The album described his perception of the inhumanity of the regime and his views on life under communist rule. The album was released in early 1969 and was banned and removed from shelves shortly after.
Kryl left Czechoslovakia in 1969 to attend a music festival at Waldeck Castle in West Germany. Faced with certain imprisonment in his homeland, he decided to apply for political asylum and stay. He attained a second, German, maturita in 1973 and went on to study art history and journalism at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, though he never attained a title. [2] For the majority of his time in exile, Kryl worked for Radio Free Europe and released a number of albums during this period. Many of these songs became iconic back in his homeland and a symbol of protest. Kryl went on several tours across Scandinavia, North America and Australia. During this time, he composed songs not only in his native Czech, but also in Polish and German.[1]
In the enthusiastic November days of 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, Kryl returned to Czechoslovakia to attend his mother’s funeral. At first he was thrilled, but he later reportedly became disappointed with the transformation of society.[3] He continued to write protest songs criticising the transformation of government. On March 3, 1994, just a month before his fiftieth birthday, Karel Kryl died of a heart attack in a Passau hospital.[4]
Karel Kryl has only released one album in Czechoslovakia (Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka),[5] but he has released many albums while in exile, a prominent example would be Tekuté písky.[6]
Czech Wikiquote has quotations related to: Karel Kryl