Dálava, the genre-defying ensemble led by vocalist Julia Úlehlawith guitarist Aram Bajakian (Lou Reed, John Zorn, Diana Krall), returns with Understories, a deeply evocative new album that explores uncharted territories of sound. Seamlessly weaving Moravian folk traditions with an experimental, improvisational approach, Understories takes the listener on a journey through captivating sonic worlds. Dálava’s music has received critical acclaim for its expressive depth: fRoots extolled their prior release as “so overwhelming and so intense that it is hard to put into any category…. Saying that The Book of Transfigurations is a masterpiece is not an exaggeration.”

Most of the pieces in Dálava’s repertoire are inspired by a collection of folk songs compiled in the book Živá Píseň (Living Song) written by Úlehla’s great-grandfather. A biologist and ethnomusicoloist, Vladimír Úlehla (1888-1947) meticulously transcribed hundreds of folk songs from his hometown, the Moravian village of Strážnice in southeast Czechia. On Understories Julia Úlehla exhibits an ineffable kinship to these songs, a deeply-rooted living bond to the land of her father’s and great-grandfather’s birth. The American-born daughter of a refugee from communist Czechoslovakia, Julia Úlehla directs Dálava’s interpretations of these centuries-old transcriptions, ensuring they are conferred with a respect not only for the music as a historical artifact, but as living, breathing organisms that speak to their metaphysical universality. Dálava, which means ‘the disappearing line on the horizon, where sky and land merge into each other,’ is an apt description of the group’s approach: The music resides in that indeterminate, liminal space between past and future, magic and realism, neither primordial nor of this world. The album is a sonic exploration that transcends time and borders, fusing disparate traditions into a singular, emotionally charged experience.