Talaqpo - LIVE Akropo (2026) [Hi-Res]

The story of the album begins back in 2019, when Lucie Páchová, core member of Talaqpo, met Mary and her daughter Jannet while they were dancing under a mango tree in their village of Odek in northern Uganda. They became friends, and as that encounter was quite influential for her, she returned in 2023 for a much longer visit. During the months she stayed with them, they taught her dozens of folk songs in the Acholi language as she joined them in their daily work. Whether planting beans, weeding the maize, digging the fields, grinding sesame on a stone or feeding animals, each tune followed the rhythm of movement. In the evenings, the women would dance and sing about weddings, local heroines, gossip about lazy women and husbands who drink too much. During Lucie’s further journeys by bicycle in Uganda, she continued listening to village bands, women’s choirs, pop songs playing on crackling bus radios, as well as the sounds of insects sounding like synths, exotic birds, night rainforests, various low-cost electronics, handmade devices and motor vehicles. When she returned home, these encounters and sonic fragments immediately began transforming into drafts of instrumental compositions.

Over the following two years, the sketched compositions found their own life and sound within the language of Talaqpo, the Prague-based quintet with pianist Vojtěch Procházka, violinist Milan Jakeš, bassist Luan Gonçalves and drummer Jan Chalupa. Through live concerts, the pieces gradually entered the full body of the band. Evolving through experimentation and improvisation, they grew into intense and physical music grounded in the musicians’ characteristic approaches and a distinctive sound, while maintaining respect for the original material and its sources.

Talaqpo’s sound is rooted in collective connection and a high responsiveness to the present moment. The influences of ritual, dance and collective trance come together with a physical experience of music that is essential for each piece. The decision to record the album live reflects the music’s origins in everyday life and in the collective practices of music and dance in a circle. For Talaqpo, music is a shared experience where there is no clear distinction between performers and listeners. Everyone shapes the space through their physical presence, attention and movement, as was the case at Talaqpo’s concert at Jazzbar Akropolis in Prague, where the album was recorded and where they were joined by wind player Zdeněk Závodný.

Lucie Páchová: voice
Vojtěch Procházka: keys, electronics
Milan Kárník Jakeš: violin
Luan Gonçalves: bass guitar
Jan Chalupa: drums