CH: Your music seems to be mainly improvised. Can you describe your working method during the recordings?
Jara Tarnovski: We do not have an only method of music creation. However, we use mainly semi-improv or "controlled improvisation" during our recording sessions. We are interested in linking known to unknown, exploring relationship between intuitive composition and total improvisation. We use non-musical as well as musical instruments, we are interested in dissonance, noise, field recordings ... Personally, I like the special, intimate kind of communication that occurs between musicians during improvisation. But I also enjoy moments when I'm alone at night locked in a recording studio.

CH: How important is it to work with many different guest artists?
Jara Tarnovski: I like cooperation with other musicians. For me it is similar to discover unknown places or exotic dishes. You can also learn about your own music something new this way. It is a very special moment if you get an opportunity to work with someone whose work you have respected for rather long time. Gurun Gurun's collaboration with other musicians has of course its practical reason, too. We can not play all musical instruments - for example, viola da gamba or clarinets.

CH: What do you think about the importance of performing live these days?
Jara Tarnovski: Live performances are for improvisational or semi-improvisational music, of course, the most natural environment. Personally, I am more and more fascinated by a role of the time in improvisational music, working with "a different speed of time" during live performances. I perceive concerts as a way of communication with people and as a way to "touch" the presence, being here and now.

CH: Your a Czech-based collective. Please tell us a bit about the cultural life in your country.
Jara Tarnovski: There are a lot of talented artists in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, most of them are known only locally. It might be because of lack of their self-confidence and assertiveness, which are attributes needed to be known beyond the borders of our country. Certainly, it is also consequence of the communist regime in former Czechoslovakia that lasted for more than four decades. And unfortunately it is result of an inadequate state support for contemporary art and artists, too.
I tried to introduce the Czech experimental music scene among others in these mixes, which I prepared for Fluid Radio (http://bit.ly/m6dPnt) and The Silent Ballet (http://bit.ly/vZ8Jy8).

CH: What's your hope for music and arts in this decade?
Jara Tarnovski: I hope more people will perceive sound and music as a unique means of self-knowledge.