When the poplar trees whisper, the dead are talking. Or maybe it’s God, or memories of people no longer with us. Soundscapes and sonic notes are central to Richard Hronský’s third (bedroom) studio album, Pohreb (The Funeral) – following up thematically on his second release Closures. Squeaking of wooden floors, dim afternoon sunlight coming through the window with bird songs and static in the grandfather’s radio playing in the garage – the record entails the melancholy of growing up and saying goodbye to our loved ones and the world we shared with them. Deeply personal memories and audio sketches tell the oldest story of the life cycle and its inevitable end, but also continuation with generations that come after us.

Through the smallest audio details, Pohreb takes us to the village house of Richard’s grandparents and recollects their daily habits. What began as a need to record one's samples to create beats turned out to be an invaluable library documenting one period of life – audiospace, where lost things resist the passage of time. “For me, the sound is more powerful than the photograph itself,” Richard Hronský explains his relation to the sonic diaries he’s been keeping since the age of sixteen. “When I look at a photograph of myself in that grandparent's house, it doesn't have as much power or isn’t as valuable as the sound.” This intimate connection fuels every track on the album and creates a web of connections only partly accessible to the listener. Even though we cannot understand every reference and sound, the feeling of sadness, longing, but also reconciliation is familiar to everyone regardless of our family histories. Ultimately, we don’t need to make peace only with the absence of our ancestors, but also with the world, which is rapidly changing in ways we cannot predict.

One of the strategies to cope with the constant transformation is to preserve some traditions – whether they come as tones from a fujara, an old recording of a folk song by Slovak ethnographer Karol Plicka (used for the last track on the album), grandmother’s prayers overheard over the sound of television or the tones emanating from organ in the village church. “I reflect on tradition as something that moves, as a thing that is simply a product of the people, that's not closed, but open to criticism, reevaluation and living through over again.” Pohreb is part of this cycle of reinventions, a manual on how to immerse oneself in the flow of time. 

Richard Hronský – fujara, voice, harmonica, field recordings, processed samples
Oliver Hronský – organ (on track 7)
Adela Mede – voice (on track 8)
Krištof Krupa – double bass (on track 8)
Viliam Solovic – cello & fujara (on track 11)
Adam Badí Donoval – field recording (on track 13)


Recorded, produced and mixed by Richard Hronský
richardhronsky.bandcamp.com

Album was created in Slovakia, Estonia and Greece, from November 2023 to March 2025.
Most of the tracks were recorded and produced in Bratislava, Slovakia and finished in Athens, Greece.
Field recordings are from the 2018-2025 artists backpack.

Organ & voice on track 12 performed & recorded by Štefan Bobek
Original sample on track 13 recorded by Karel Plicka


Mastered by Adam Badí Donoval

Artwork “Early winter”, 2023 by Karola Ainsar
www.instagram.com/paljusateadsid/

Design and liner notes by Richard Hronský
www.instagram.com/hronskyy/

Words by Nora Třísková


Thanks to Karola Ainsar, Katarína Aroche, Jakub Juhás, Michaela Cagáňová, Zoltán Czakó, Adela Mede, Adam Badí Donoval, Dominik Gajdoš, Anton Mozola, Ema Mihálová, Agáta Kertész, Štefan Szabó, Krištof Krupa, Nora Třísková, Elena Hronská, Samuel Oravec and Christopher Michael Pauliny.

Dedicated to Mária and Marián Gajdoš, Štefan and Emília Bobek, and generally all (grand) parents.


Released by mappa as MAP061 in 2025

Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council

Transfiguration

liquid cartography
sonic wanderings

mappa.editions@gmail.com

𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟝
MAP059 Lénok - Langue of Tongue
MAP062 Kult Masek & Petr Vrba - Fumarola
MAP060 Yoichi Kamimura & Olli Aarni - Kōri no ryokō / Jäämatkailu
MAP061 Richard Hronský - Pohreb
MAP064 Areliz Ramos - B side
MAP063 Plume Gril - Unnameable Glory
MAP057 claire rousay & Gretchen Korsmo - quilted lament
MAP058 Adam Badí Donoval - a mirror where the image and the mirror wholly coincided
MAP056 fraufraulein - greater honeyguide
MAP055 - Julek ploski - Give Up Channel

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MAP053 Michaela Antalová & Adrian Myhr - Sing Nightingale
MAP051 michaela turcerová - alene et
MAP052 E/I - explicit isolation
MAP054 Lamina - Sueños acuáticos
MAP049 - Päfgens - Aspect of What
MAP050 - Henrique Vaz - De Silenti Natura
MAP048 Alley Catss - m Helux
MAP047 adaa - …img…
MAP041 Pentu - And I Saw My Devil And I Saw My Deep Blue Sea

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MAP041 Slowfoam - Worlding With Earth
MAP045 VA - Synthetic Bird Music
MAP044 Line Gate - Trap
SKUMAP002 Action Pyramid & Jack Greenhalgh - Mardle: Daily Rhythms of a Pond
046 Adela Mede - Ne L​é​pj a Vir​á​gra
043 Plume Girl - In the End We Begin
039 Forces - Chim​æ​ras
040 Rob Winstone - sifting through heaven
SKUMAP001 Lucie Vítková - Cave Acoustics
030 Symposium Musicum - Symposium Musicum

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038 Nighte - Pin down the dust
036 Kensho Nakamura - Electric Rust
037 Andrew Oda - Back To The Body
031 Baldruin - Kleine Freuden
035 CC Sorensen - Phantom Rooms
034 Alexandra Spence - a veil, the sea
033 Manja Ristić - Him, fast sleeping, soon he found In labyrinth of many a round, self​-​rolled
Grykë Pyje - The Fantastic World of Grykë Pyje
032 Atte Elias Kantonen - POP 6 SUSURRUS

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029 Grykë Pyje - Squirlich Stroll
028 Cucina Povera - Dalmarnock tapes
027 Nick Storring - Newfoundout
025 Lucia Nimcová & Sholto Dobie - DILO
026 Cheryl E. Leonard - Schism
024 Tastin Menu - Stand closer when you have something to say
023 Infant - face first in the entangled

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022 Line Gate - Apex
021 Andrew Oda - SOTTO
020 Cristián Alvear & d'incise - Bow down thine ear, I bring you glad tidings
019 Vlad Dobrovolski - Natursymphony No​.​1 — Spring Music
018 Felicity Mangan - Creepy Crawly
017 Roman Radkovič Collective - Televize
016 Olli Aarni - Mustikoita ja kissankelloja
015 Sarah Hughes - I love this city and its outlying lands
014 Sébastien Branche - Lignes de Fuite

𝟚𝟘𝟙𝟡
013 Grykë Pyje - Collision And Coalescence
VA: UŠAMI / Sound mapping camp - Gemer Gothic Route
012 IQ+1 - Conversaphone Plus

𝟚𝟘𝟙𝟠
011 Sarah Hennies - Sisters by Lenka Novosedlíková
010 Simon Whetham - Open and Closed Circles
009 MP Hopkins - Aeroplanes & Puddles

𝟚𝟘𝟙𝟟
008 Bruno Duplant, Pedro Chambel - Autofictions
007 Catriel Nievas, Sergio Merce - Pampa
006 Diatribes - Sistere
005 Line Gate - Den

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004 Sarah Hennies: Orienting Response by Cristián Alvear
003 Daniel Lercher & Vinzenz Schwab - Decrecimiento Exponencial
002 Adam Asnan - Carriers, PA
001 Jeph Jerman - 34​°​111'3"N 111​°​95'4"W