Dear friends and fans, after six years, our 16-member ensemble has decided to capture our original fusion of musical worlds on a second album — this time in collaboration with several distinguished guest artists. We can already reveal one name – nine-time Czech Music Academy Awards' (Ceny Anděl) winner and iconic singer – Lenka Dusilová.
We would like to kindly ask for your help in completing this album. We have already recorded our music in the studio with sound engineer Jan Košulič (a multiple Grammy Award nominee), but there is still a long way ahead before its release. We have the energy, determination, and enthusiasm — what we lack are the financial resources.
We don’t want to compromise on quality, so with your support, we would like to release an album that is mixed to world-class standards, features an exclusive cover, includes a complete booklet, printing the music on vinyl, and receives proper PR so it doesn’t go unnoticed.
What will you find on the album?
While our first album Bigband Electronics — which received a nomination for the Czech Music Academy Awards (Ceny Anděl) and won the Czech Jazz Harvest — defined our sound, the second one goes even further. We’ve dived deeper into exploring the possibilities of electronic music, genre fusion, and rhythmic elements ranging from the Middle East to our own folk traditions. All of this, set within the immense dynamic and sonic possibilities of a big band, shapes our new music. Simply put: a 21st-century big band unafraid to have its own sound and to cross genre boundaries. If you believe in the big band format music in the 21st-century and you enjoyed our first album Bigband Electronics, then you simply must have this next record! :)
The international big band Cotatcha Orchestra (CZ, SK, BG, AT) was founded eleven years ago by Czech Music Award–winning trumpeter and composer Jiří Kotača, with the vision of performing fresh and original big band music. Over the years, the ensemble has explored a wide range of diverse programs and has become an integral part of the Czech big band scene. We have collaborated with renowned European artists across genres on more than twenty projects and have performed dozens of concerts at festivals and concert halls not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Austria, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.
Among our “partners in crime” are Latin Grammy and Thelonious Monk Competition laureate Ilja Reijngoud; multiple Edison Award winner Jan van Duikeren; two-time Deutscher Jazzpreis winner Mirna Bogdanović; as well as Géraldine Schnyder, Mar Vilaseca, and Daniel Caccia. We have also collaborated with jazz veteran Vincenc Kummer, renowned dancers Martin Dvořák and his ProART Company, Swing Wings, and our classical colleagues from the Brno Contemporary Orchestra.
What will we use the money for?
Your support will help us complete the album! Unfortunately, in today’s era of streaming platforms, independent music has very little chance of paying for itself. That is why we are launching this campaign, and we will be happy if you become part of our story and help us complete our unique big band album.
The funds raised will be covering the costs of mixing and mastering the recordings, producing the vinyl records, designing the album cover and booklet, as well as paying the musicians who have invested an enormous amount of time and energy into the project. Last but not least, we would also like to use part of the funds for PR activities around the album release, so that our long-term effort — from creating the music to releasing it — so it does not get lost in the jungle of today’s information overload.
Every contribution, even the smallest one, brings us one step closer to getting our music to listeners. Thank you for being part of it with us!
PAYMENTS FOR REWARDS IN THIS CAMPAIGN ARE MADE IN CZECH CROWNS (CZK), AS WE ARE USING A CZECH CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM. WE HOPE THIS WILL NOT DISCOURAGE YOU FROM SUPPORTING OUR ALBUM, AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AT OUR FUTURE CONCERTS ACROSS EUROPE! :)
