Mantaban is a modern project of folk violinist Jiří Hodina, along with Alexey Aslamas (violin), Jan Jirucha (trombone) and Petr Kalfus (soprano saxophone, alto clarinet), musicians who share a passion for folk music, but who at the same time do not abandon their jazz and classical roots.

The idea to play together did not appear by magic. It began as a project of Jiří Hodina and his musical friends. Today's lineup came together in early 2017. "We got together over a good beer and decided to put our instruments and ideas together. And we liked this jazz-folk beer so much that we decided to create our own brand. That's Mantaban."

It's hard to put Mantaban into a stylish box. “We are simply a group of passionate and creative people who decided to look at folk songs a little differently.”

We play because we enjoy it immensely. “Music is probably what shapes our lives the most. And also because we don’t want to keep our songs just for ourselves, but to go out with them among you.”

At their concerts, Mantaban tries to address the audience with sound originality in an attempt to connect the old with the new, the traditional with the modern. Each instrument has its own identity, characteristic color, articulation abilities given by its structure, shape, range. And yet, as soon as they connect with the text of the song, are they really violin, trombone and soprano saxophone? Doesn’t the saxophone turn into a clarinet or the serpentine and trombone into an alto viola da gamba? Can’t we hear the fujari from Šumiac in the flageolet tones of the violin and the light bow stroke?