Abstract
The cosmology of Czech independent music scene of the 1980s was shaped by the discourses of Charter 77 appealing for 'parallel' culture, underground Martin Jirous's 'second' culture festivals, and Josef Vlček's manifesto of the 'alternative.' At the intersection of these calls numerous group aimed at creating free communities. This chapter describes the specific case of Hokkaido Recording Company, Devil Hills (Ďáblice).1 The group's founder, Václav Křistek, started a mystification/mythological concept of a progressive rock label providing signed-up bands with 'freedom to create for a lot of money.' Using interviews from three of the label's major figures, the various dimensions of HRC mythology are presented: social linguistics (artistic and topographical names from hikes and parties), music semiotics (tape recordings, hit-parade categories, plebiscites), and visual semiotics (album covers and zines).
Hokkaido's utopian goal in the situation of tight state censorship is presented through cultural mythologies of Roland Barthes and tested against Thomas Turino's music anthropology with applied Peircean semiotics. With its indecipherable signifiers, alternative culture of the 1980s provided a final challenge to the post-1968 invasion Czechoslovak establishment.