Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa



The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (EOST) is a Czech band, formed in 1990 by Jan Muchow, Jan Gregar, Petr Wegner and Irna Libowitz. Early shoegaze influences included Siouxsie & The Banshees, Cocteau Twins, and My Bloody Valentine. The band released the EP Pigment in 1991. This album, along with 1992's Susurrate, featured a punky feedback-drenched psychedelic rock sound. From there, the band moved into ambient and techno influenced soundscapes as evidenced by their 1994 album Free-D (Original Soundtrack) produced with Guy Fixsen. Free-D marked the end of the original line-up and something of a hiatus for the band releasing only the 1994 remix EP AstralaVista in the following six years. (Read more at Wikipedia.)

Links To Peel
Peel was an early supporter of the band, who came to London in 1993 to record a session for his show.

In an 2014 interview with The Quietus website, Jan Muchow recalled hearing Peel play a track from the band’s debut EP on the BBC World Service during the recording of their first album in January 1992:

"I could hardly breathe. I was sitting in my little room in my parents' flat in this concrete, twelve storey building, and this guru of all the great music I admired played a tune from this unknown band from Prague I happened to be member of! I even didn't know how the hell he got a copy!' "

In late summer the same year, Muchow returned to his home to find a message from his mother that an unknown Englishman had visited the band’s record label earlier in the day. This turned out to have been Peel, who had left his card and a letter explaining that he was on a short trip to Prague and had wanted to discuss the possibility of the band doing a session for his show. Arrangements were eventually made and the band arrived in London in January 1993 for the session and a series of live dates. Remembering the day at Maida Vale for the session, Muchow said:

"That recording was a pure dream come true for us. We'd never seen such a great recording studio. Oh man, that was what we'd always hoped for from people working in studios, but never experienced. … That session really changed everything."

While in London, the band signed with Go! Records and the label’s Free imprint would license and release the Peel session as the ‘...Fluidtrance Centauri…’ EP. Despite this early success, however, EOST would quickly change direction, after all their equipment was stolen back in Prague. Recording sessions in London with Guy Fixsen (of Laika) for the 1994 ‘Free-D (Original Soundtrack)’ album ended up with a more electronic-based sound and the subsequent disintegration of the band’s first incarnation.

Although recordings were released under the EOST name from around the turn of the century, available tracklistings suggest that none of them were played on Peel’s shows.

In 2012, the first two EOST albums were among when the first 100 LPs of artists beginning with E when initial details of John Peel's record collection were released over 26 weeks at The Space website (see Record Collection: E.

Festive Fifty Entries

 * None

Sessions
One session only. Official releases:
 * ...Fluidtrance Centauri… 10” / CD EP, 1993 (Free Records)
 * Thirteen Years In Noises CD, 2004 (Rev-Ola CRREV 76).

1. Recorded 1993-01-24. First broadcast 26 February 1993. Repeated 11 June 1993.
 * Fluidum / Alpha Centavri / Trance (Between The Stars)

Other Shows Played
(The following list was compiled only from the database of this site and Lorcan's Tracklistings Archive. Please add more information if known.)


 * 1992
 * 05 January 1992: Honeyrain (12 inch EP - Pigment) Ecstasy Release
 * 26 January 1992: Honeyrain (12" EP- Pigment) Ecstasy Release
 * 25 October 1992 (BFBS): To Alison (LP - Susurrate) Reflex


 * 1993
 * 28 May 1993 (BFBS): Alpha Centauri (10" EP: Fluidtrance Centuari) Free
 * 29 May 1993: Fluidum (10 inch EP - Fluidtrance Centauri) Free
 * 03 July 1993: Alpha Centauri (CD EP – Fluidtrance Centauri) Free
 * 10 July 1993 (BFBS): Square Wave (The Blow Mix) (v/a cassette - The Noise And The Melodies - The Pearl-Compilation) Pearle-Fanzine


 * 1994
 * 22 January 1994: S O S (12") white label
 * 01 April 1994: Sooper Kosmos (CD - Free-D (Original Soundtrack) (Free)


 * Other
 * Peel Out In The States: Fluidum
 * John Peel Around The World: Alpha Centauri (in Prague, with Misha Glenny taking about beer)