Floex [Tomáš Dvořák]

[ABoretz]

Tomas Dvorak's music (arguably) defined and (definitely) enriched the Samorost2 game experience, and it's exciting to anticipate what he might be composing for the Machinarium soundtrack.  Maybe it'll be something like his contribution to Surreal Madrid's 2007 EP "Kill the headliners!" called "Petr Parler"?  http://www.surrealmadrid.net/releases/sm16/index.html

In any case, since obtaining a copy of the Samorost2 CD-ROM and listening to the music tracks many times over, my curious ear started me searching out Tomas' pre- and post-Samorost works; and so, if anyone's interested, here are some of my findings:

His first CD, "Pocustone", is available as MP3 downloads from the QuaziDelict label http://www.quazidelict.cz/en/disco.htm   (I read somewhere that he did the cover art himself)

Sadly I haven't found an affordable way to obtain the actual CD of "Pocustone".  Someone elsewhere here on this forum suggested sites in Germany and Japan but I don't read German and the Japanese site wants oodles of $$$.  Which really sucks because it says here http://www.discogs.com/release/115570 that "Track 00 is a multimedia track which gives the user the possibility to create a audiovisual experience on his/her computer by pressing keys on the keyboard. Several keys trigger a pre-programmed soundtrack and flash animation."  That sounds too cool not to peek at!  ;-)  That must be what's listed on the QuaziDelict site as "xx. candy_ski (multimedia track)"

Back in 2002 he was nominated for Best New Act at the Andel music awards (the Czech equivalent of the Grammys) http://www.radio.cz/en/article/24819

His website/blog is here http://floex.cz/
and his Facebook page is here  http://www.facebook.com/floex.official

[dg10050]

I'm pretty sure candy_ski doesn't come with the iTunes download. But you can check it out right here: http://fx.muteme.cz/web/candy/index.htm
I found it on this page: http://fx.muteme.cz/web/
Of course, it still doesn't beat having the actual CD (Floex deserves to be lossless).

EDIT: I just happened to come across this: http://www.blackpointmusic.cz/shop/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&products_id=7841&language=en&zenid=dmcnn1u7817tvr5vjt4oocdoe5

[ABoretz]

Thank you "dg10050"!

The links to CandySki et.al. are much appreciated!
That was a great job of GOOGLING you did.  

(but can you find Morpheus?   )

[dg10050]

Just FYI, I had ordered Pocustone on 12/23/07 from Black Point Music, and just as I was getting worried today that they weren't actually in stock and it wasn't going to ship, I received an email that stated that my CD just shipped. I'll post an update when I receive it.
Btw, the site says that it should take a maximum of 20 days for it to arrive.

[onocentaur]

I listened to Pocustone on Napster (I had a free trial  ), I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as Samarost2. Perhaps it's a grower...

[dg10050]

Well, I just received my Pocustone CD. It's very nice. Great ambient music for studying or doing other work. Everything arrived in great shape from Black Point Music, though it is apparent that it has been in storage for a while (a bit dusty with light scratches). BTW ABoretz, the cover art was indeed done by Floex himself. The cover insert says so. (The cover insert seems to be pretty roughly translated, but there's not too much text and what little text there is is understandable, so it's not an issue)

[ABoretz]

Well, I just received my Pocustone CD. It's very nice. Great ambient music for studying or doing other work. Everything arrived in great shape from Black Point Music, though it is apparent that it has been in storage for a while (a bit dusty with light scratches).

That's *great* news, dg10050!

And thanks for being the groups' guinea pig by being the first to order from Black Point Music.
I have to confess that as soon as I read that you'd found a source for the actual Pocustone CD I surfed right over and began the order process, only to ultimately chicken out when it came to entering payment info.

Looks like whereas you had the jitters about Tamizdat, I got all goose-pimply about Black Point.

Still, one can never be too careful where online payments are concerned so, again, thanks for doing the hard part.

Houston, I'm going in...  
http://www.blackpointmusic.cz/shop/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&products_id=7841&language=en&zenid=dmcnn1u7817tvr5vjt4oocdoe5  

Update: The Pocustone CD is now OOP.  

[dg10050]

Yeah, the one thing that had kind of bothered me at first was how the product page said that the CD costs $15.44, but I was only charged $13 (+$7 shipping). That and the fact that it took about three weeks to ship. Once it was sent, it arrived in about five days though. Also, the site only asked for the city I live in, but not the state. I'd imagine the post office could determine the state by the zip code, but I ended up entering both my city and state where it asked for city (i.e. City, State). I also made a note in the additional comments area just in case there was confusion. Anyway, it got here fine.

[Goyle]

Floex is not only working on the Machinarium soundtrack, but his own second solo album.

I got a sneak peak of one of them (I'm not sure which) and I don't want to spoil anything, suffice to say that if you liked the Samorost2 Soundtrack, you're really going to love this.

Very mellow, very melodic.

[Nurykabe]

Oh ! That's a good news.

[ABoretz]

Floex's first album, "Pocustone" has been out of print since earlier this year (2008).  Since then one could only purchase mp3 downloads of the tracks at the Tamizdat site and some others.  Which is fine, except that the CD also contains a multi-media piece called "Candy Ski" that one can play on their computer (not sure if it's PC only or MAC compatible also).  Our forum member "dg10050" found a web link to the piece: http://fx.muteme.cz/web/candy/index.htm  but it's sometimes cool to have CDs around also, don't you think?  

Anyway, today I discovered that there's an individual in Germany who is selling the CD for

[ABoretz]

http://www.last.fm/music/tomas+dvorak