DG 307

DG 307, a Czechoslovak group that took its name from the legal exemption from national service on the grounds of mental health, co-opted their instruments from everyday life. In his samizdat ‘Report on the Third Czech Musical Revival’ circulated in 1975, Ivan 'Magor' Jirous claimed ‘DG 307 is more youthful, far more liberated from the conventions of rock or any other type of music. This is further emphasised by the untraditional instruments they use (they play on iron bars, vacuum cleaner tubes, typewriters, etc). A great deal of space is left for the accident.’ What was required to play such instruments was not technique but imagination. The sources for free creativity were to be found within the individual: all that was required was to throw off the shackles of convention. The band embraced primitivism in lyrics and music creating noisy pre industrial music jams. The first incarnation of the ensemble was dissolved when Pavel Zajíček got arrested, alongside other heroes of the Czechoslovak underground, in 1976. That was the moment which gave rise to the initiative known as Charter 77, where members of the civilised avant-garde – political dissidents – decided to offer their support to a group of long-haired ‘cavemen’. Zajíček reformed the band after his release in late '70s.

Members

• Pavel Zajíček - founder and the only original member in today's configuration of the band
• Ivan Bierhanzl (bass guitar)
• Tomáš Vtípil (violin, electronics)
• Tomáš Schilla (violoncello)
• Petr Fučík (drums)
• Ivan Manolov (electric guitar)

Former members

• Milan Hlavsa - (bass guitar) - former member and founder
• Jana Jonakova - (singer) - former member
• Ivo Pospíšil - (bass guitar)

Albums

• Gift to the shadows (fragment) - 1982 Šafrán 78, Švédsko a Boží mlýn, Canada, LP
• DG 307 (1973-5) - 1990, Globus, CD
• Dar stínům (jaro 1979) - 1992, Globus, CD
• Pták utrženej ze řetězu (podzim 1979), 1993, Globus, CD
• Torzo (léto 1980) - 1993, Globus, CD
• Umělě ochuceno (Artificially flavored, 1992, Újezd MC, CD, LP
• koncert "Tvář jako Botticelliho Anděl", 1995, vlastní náklad, pouze MC
• Kniha psaná chaosem, 1996, Globus CD
• Siluety, 1998, vlastní náklad CD
• Koncert', 1999, Indies CD, MC
• Artificially flavored (Umělě ochuceno), 2001, Guerilla records CD
• Siluety - 2001, Guerilla records, CD (reedice vydání z r. 1998)
• Šepoty a výkřiky - 2002, Guerilla records, CD
• Historie hysterie (Archiv dochovaných nahrávek 1973-75), 2002, Guerilla records CD
• Nosferatu (hudba k němému filmu Upír Nosferatu), 2004, Guerilla records CD
• DG 307 - LIVE (17.4.2005) - 2005, Guerilla records CD
• Kakofonie cesty (Pavel Zajíček sólo), 2007, Guerilla records, CD
• Květy podzimu - barvy jara /live at La Fabrika, 2008, La Fabrika, CD
• Veřejná zkouška/Public rehearsal Praha-New York, 2009, Ears&Wind Records, CD-R v plechovce
• Magický město vyhořelo - koncert z roku 1994, 2008, Guerilla Records, CD
• V katedrálách ticha - koncert z roku 1994, 2011, Guerilla Records, CD
• Podobenství (Pavel Zajíček sólo) 2011, Guerilla Records, CD
• Životy? Nebo bludné kruhy?, 2013, Guerilla Records, CD
• Dar stínům - Pták utrženej z řetězu - Torzo - Waste Land (Pustina), (5CD), 2013, Guerilla Records, CD