The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (EOST) are 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. In 1991, the band released the EP Pigment, which featured a punky feedback-drenched psychedelic rock sound developed further on the following year's Susurrate LP. From there, EOST moved into ambient and techno influenced soundscapes with 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, who released 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 a 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! [1]
In late summer the same year, Muchow returned 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 with 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 EOST arrived in London in January 1993 for the session plus a series of live dates. Muchow remembers the day in Maida Vale for the session as a landmark for the band:
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. [2]
While in London, the band also signed with Go! Records and the subsidiary Free label would license and release the Peel session as the ‘...Fluidtrance Centauri…’ EP. Despite this early success, however, EOST quickly changed direction, after all of their equipment was stolen back in Prague. Recording sessions in London with Guy Fixsen (of Laika) for the 1994 ‘Free-D (Original Soundtrack)’ album led to a more electronic-based sound and the subsequent disintegration of the first incarnation of the band.
Although recordings were released under the EOST name from around the turn of the century, with only Muchow remaining from the original line-up, available tracklistings suggest that none of these 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[]
The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - Alphi Centauri
Alpha Centauri (Peel session, first broadcast 26 February 1993)
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.)
- 05 January 1992: Honeyrain (12 inch EP - Pigment) Ecstasy Release
- 26 January 1992: Honeyrain (12" EP- Pigment) Ecstasy Release
- January 1992, unknown date BBC World Service: unknown track (see "Links To Peel" above)
- 16 October 1992: Pistaccio Places (LP - Susurrate) Reflex
- 23 October 1992: To Alison (album - Susurrate) Reflex RR 0004-2 31
- 25 October 1992 (BFBS): To Alison (LP - Susurrate) Reflex
- 1993
- 21 May 1993: Alpha Centauri (10" EP - ...Fluidtrance Centauri...) Free
- 28 May 1993 (BFBS): Alpha Centauri (10" EP: Fluidtrance Centuari) Free
- 29 May 1993: Fluidum (10 inch EP - Fluidtrance Centauri) Free
- 05 June 1993: Fluidum (10" - ...Fluidtrance Centauri...) Free FOTU 2
- 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 (Program 12): Fluidum (10" - Fluidtrance Centauri) Free
- John Peel Around The World: Alpha Centauri (in Prague, with Misha Glenny taking about beer)