Nikol Bóková - Expedition (2023)

Nikol Bóková's new album Expedition will be released on the last Friday of November, which will be her third author's title, released on her own label Soleil et Pluie, and the sixth album in total, released within five years.

Guitarist David Dorůžka, double bass player Martin Kocián and drummer Michał Wierzgoń went on the expedition with Nikol – a group that was founded on the occasion of the recording of the Elements album under the name Nikol Bóková Quartet. Norwegian trumpeter Gunnar Halle also features a guest appearance on two of the album's tracks.

"Expedition is a ride. Space ride. I am inspired in many ways by Arthur C. Clarke and his science fiction novels. I am inspired by the world, the stars, the moon, the planets, thoughts and galaxies, and maybe even an earthly ride in a convertible. In Expedition, I am in a spacecraft on a long journey through space, in a submarine deep in the ocean, in the Faroe Islands, in Japan, one moment I am a robot on Mars, one moment it is me dancing or listening to the wind, one moment I am the wind itself. There are plenty of places to explore in Expedition with an unlimited number of passengers.”

Nikol Bóková says and Jan Bók Vala adds:

"Like every expedition, this one is about discovering something new, graspable only step by step, where the eye of telescopes and satellites can see at the speed of light.

The relativity of time and space to human existence is the basic theme of all nine compositions. In her approach to the composition, Nikol always dodges meteorites where she feels that she is repeating herself, or that she sounds like something that was already there. So our brain hears echoes of something that we seem to have known for ages, but at the same time have never heard. Except for The Deep Range, which in parts references the classic piano literature of the deep sea, but pierces it with the electric sine probe of David's guitar.

It's music that's best listened to in its entirety, and then repeated several times. Each time, it will show you additional layers to explore and the experiences you just captured with your ear satellites.

Depending on whether we are optimists or pessimists, then on the cover we see a picture from Mars, which has just been inhabited, or from our climatically polluted Earth (anyway, a picture from the near future)."