If you don't have connections to what's happening in Prague, it's hard to stay abreast of Bohemia's musical bohemia. The samizdat Plastic People of the Universe or President Václav Havel making Frank Zappa Czechoslovakia's ‘Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism’ are old. New musical Kings and Queens of Bohemia reign.

Wearing improv stars in their crowns, Romanovská Tichý Hubrý recorded this masterpiece in a High Baroque/Rococo palace beside the Charles Bridge on the Old Town bank of the Vlatava. Once again, it's a flash for lovers of sonorities and how to fashion new pots from old, such as the koto's cimbalom textures on the titular ‘It Was Right At The Beginning of Winter’. Every piece is an improvised original with its structure, melodicism and rhythmicality. For example, ‘I'm Playing the Composition We're Playing’ is a case of instrumental polyphony with sonics pleasuring the ears with earth rumblings to canine gratification squeals. Over almost seven minutes, it romps through classical violin and Moravian folk fiddle voicings to cartoon composition passages – though nowhere near Hubrý's homage á Carl Stalling, ‘Oh Tomcat’ on their 2018 debut. It Was Right At is a tour de force splashing new colours on a palette of classical, Czech and Slovak (punk-)folk, jazz and improv.