Song – book and an audiobook

The spiritual poetry book Song was published simultaneously alongside Windmills as part of a project that had the working title of Double Poetry. Song is made up of 144 minimalist poems, divided into twelve chapters, which is symbolic of the fact that the book was written over a twelve year period.

It also contains an audio recording done by Viktor Preiss and Lukáš Hlavica. It is accompanied by Hubert Bittman’s music. The CD contains 101 poems chosen by the author and recorded under the direction of Lukáš Hlavica with the postproduction of Hubert Bittman. It is a truly unique listening experience.

This edition of Song contains abstract images by Kateřina Bittmanová, created specifically for this book. Each of the chapters is introduced by one of the images, of which there are twelve in total. The thirteenth image is on the cover of the audiobook CD attached to the book, and the fourteenth is on the cover of the whole publication.

The book design was done by Svetlana Číčelová, who added in small pieces of each of the artworks into every individual chapter. The book cover features the main painting of the set, called “the diamond”.

The first part of Song was published as a samizdat under communism, under the title That’s why I played you this song. It came in a sort of puzzle format, made up of twelve colorful cards. The illustrations were done by Jaro Beliš and the puzzle concept of the book was created by Julo Nagy. It illustrated the timelessness of meditation, prayer, and poetry itself.

The whole Song was first officially published in 2000. It was made up of the current 144 poems and had the subtitle of Psalms from Prague and other places to hint at the fact that its largest portion was written in Prague (unlike the first part which was written in Bratislava). The book had a simple design with a photograph of a church wall with a colorful reflection. The combination of the static and unchanging element of the church stone wall with the fleeting moment of the changing colorful rays of light illustrated the current strength and fragility of meditation and prayer. The book design was done by Juraj Szedlák. Song was also published in English.

Publisher: Porta libri

  Book launch at Nová Cvernovka

  Trailer - video in English and facebook (in Czech)

  Order in Czech Republic

  Order in Slovakia

TV report: Czech TV
Slovak Radio Interwiew (in Slovak)
Project Double Poetry

Motto:

if you want to change the world
first change your soul
when you succeed
you've changed the world
 

  Sample