Wandering Memories #3: An Eclectic Guide to the Music of the Balkans
I will take you today on a true journey.
Just use a little imagination and listen.
I will show you how I create the soundtrack of my travel life and encourage you to create your own :)
Music can create images of culture, other mentality and history. Even when we do not know a single word in the sung language. Focusing on the music of the region I'm travelling to is an element thanks to which I can tune myself into the country, culture and people with whom I'll be staying. Before I start my my trip I always search for folk music of a given country as well as for contemporary, interesting artists. Listening to this music imagination crosses the borders of countries much earlier than our foot and settle in foreign forests, mountains, ruins of castles and ordinary houses. Later It often accompanies me when I visit the country of it's origin and always reminds me of what I visited when I'm listening to it at home after my return. It acts like photography or an intense smell - it evokes memories, emotions, associations with a given place. Discovering world music, one also discovers how diverse it is and how many genres of music hide the whole musical-ethnic world. Enjoy a musical tour of the Balkan peninsula!
We start our journey from Slovenia, where in 1973 Tomaž Pengov released a wonderful folk album entitled Odpotovanja. Slightly psychedelic, very melancholic and rather calm music accompanied me while climbing on Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia about which you can read in the first Wandering Memories post. In Slovenian "Cesta" means "a road" and, for me, it's really the music of road and nature. I share two tracks because I was not able to choose one, but it is worth to reach for the whole album.
In Slovenia, we will hear more than once about their greatest national musical pride - Laibach. The controversial band, which has existed since 1980, draws on totalitarian symbolism (both left and right, which manifests itself in their sound, appearance and behaviour (see how they answered questions in interviews. Laubach belonged to a wider artistic collective called Neue Slowenische Kunst, associating poster makers, theatre groups and other artists. It was also the first Western band to perform in North Korea.
After Slovenia we enter the world of proper Balkan countries, starting with Croatia. Along with the wonderful beaches, islands and the sunshine, we also enter the area where very brutal battles took place two decades ago. These were times when music and pop culture also began to comment on war events and these two worlds began to blend. Today, we can therefore listen to incredibly audible, catchy rock tracks from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, which, however, speak of the defence of their own country against the enemy, killing opponents and even genocide. One should remember that all these countries speak the same language, so these songs were often a signal to the opponents, a power display or just a kind of "beef" between them. In front of you probably the most popular artist at that time in Croatia with a peculiar name Thompson (Where did this name come from? You can find out from the clip:)
The second track is a completely different atmosphere, but also a very well-known melody for fans of rock music from the 80's. Someone will guess what kind of song am I talking about? Elevated, slow mood and paid tribute to the soldiers who gave their lives in the war to defend their homeland. Meanwhile, we are leaving Croatia and enter Bosnia and Herzegovina!
We reach the town of Mostar, a city where the Croatian Catholics live on one side of the river, and the Muslim Boszniacs on the other side - and there's a symbolic bridge connecting two parts of the city. In Bosnia a specific genre has developed, called Svedah or svedalinka. "Sveda" is Turkish word for "love". This is what the genre is mostly about, but usually they have a sad and tragic tone. For me it sounds a bit like a less dynamic tango without sexual passion;) If you prefer something more vibrant and energetic, it is better to go straight away to the next tracks.
We leave Mostar and go to full of painful scars, but extremely atmospheric and colorful Sarajevo, also with the sound of svedalinka.
It was in Sarajevo in 1974 where the legendary Yugoslavian band Bijelo dugme ("White button") came into being on the initiative famous Goran Bregović. This group was a symbol of the patriotism and unity of Yugoslavia, and it is still today glorified by almost everyone in the countries that belonged to the federation. It is the absolutely most important band from the entire Balkan region, and it perfectly reflects the climate of the peninsula. And no wonder, because Bijelo dugme created dozens of eclectic musical pearls, so I'll share three of them. For the first fire goes a very lively and joyful piece entitled "Let's go to the mountains!".
"Lipe cvatu" is an extremely charming piece about love, or rather about its loss, but there could not lack a reference to Yugoslavia - I really don't care where you went
Yugoslavia is big enough.
The next track is in fact a folk song of the Balkan Roma minority about their spring festival. It is the most often covered Balkan piece in the world. There is no point in trying to describe how it sounds, what emotions it brings. The essence of the Balkans. In Serbian, this holiday is called "Đurđevdan" and that is exactly the title of this track:
However, in the Roma original, it is "Ederlezi". This work appeared in Kusturica's film "Time of the Gypsies" in the highly magical scene of the main character's dream. You can see it here:
The next piece "Zenica blues" (taken out of Zenica city) recorded by band Zabranjeno pušenje ("smoking prohibited") is a surprisingly joyful and happy way track.
One can get the impression that life in Yugoslavia was really the land of milk and honey :)
While being in Bosnia and Herzegovina we cannot fail to mention the team Dubioza Kolektiv. Eclectically combining genres from dub, reggae, rock, rap and of course traditional Balkan music. They are characterized by very, very live performances so If you have a chance, go and see them!
Bosnia leaves us in the rhythm of a war song about Bosnian artillery. I would like to draw attention to the masterful editing of the video:
When we enter Serbia, we catch ourselves in a village pub where we can see that many Serbs, young and old, are standing by the tables with rakija in their hands singing together with a turbo-folk band. Turbo-Folk is a specific folk mix of traditional Balkan music with pop and even dance music. It is popular throughout the peninsula, but Serbia is leading the way. This can easily be called the Balkan euro polo;) In times of war lyrics were often about war and nationalist nature, as the piece below is:
In Belgrade, however, we can hear more pleasant and slightly less kitschy sounds. One of the classics is certainly Bajaga and Instructori, a band of similar status as Bijelo dugme.
The Balkans is not only fun and energetic music. Gloomy Belgrade, full of modernist and socialist-realistic architecture, gave birth to at least a few great post-punk bands. One of them is Ekatarina Velika
Equally great, if not better, post-punk/new wave served us in the 80s band called Идоли (Idoli).
From Serbia we get to Romania, a country not belonging to the Balkan states, but definitely under the strong influence of Balkan culture. Here in the first village you encounter you will hear the sounds of manele coming out of almost every bar. Manele is a Romanian version of turbo-folk, but with greater influence of gypsy music.
However, when we immerse ourselves in the dark, hidden forests of Transylvania, the more suitable music will provide us Negura Bunget, a more atmospheric variety of black metal.
The Romanian music scene can also boast of the band Phoenix playing progressive rock.
Surely all contemporary music listeners know the name Horaţiu Rădulescu. This is one of the most important representatives of spectralism and certainly the most important of the so-called Romanian school.
Coming back to more "peculiar" and cheerful rhythms, let's come again to the countryside, this time excluding the kitschy elements of the manele. Taraf de Haïdouks represent a lăutărească style, which is a genre combining Romanian folk music with Russian, Turkish and Byzantine influences.
The last presented band of Romania will be the brass band Fanfare Ciocârlia. They play typical music of the Serbian festival in Guča, which can be best described as "Serbian Woodstock Festival".
Bulgarian Исихия (Isihia) can enchant us with hypnotizing, drony rhythms and songs inspired by Byzantine anthems and folk music.
However, the even bigger gem is probably Le Mystère des voix bulgares, a compilation of traditional Bulgarian polyphonic songs (often a capella). Marcel Cellier spent 15 years travelling around Bulgaria completing the music. Exceptionally magical music not from this world, reminiscent of Dead Can Dance-like sounds but 100% ethnic.
We enter Macedonia only for a moment, stopping in Shutka, the district of Skopje. It is the world's largest concentration of gypsies. How's live going on there we can learn from a real street gypsy rap:
Bearing in mind that it was in Macedonia that the old Orthodox Slavonic and Cyrlica originated, it is worth taking a closer look at the band Апорєа, which is strongly inspired by traditional Christian and Byzantine liturgical music.
Albanians also have their traditional polyphonic songs, songs of enormous power, wonderfully telling about the difficulties of living in the Albanian mountains. Shivers guaranteed.
Our journey ends in Greece. ?\Μάνος Χατζιδάκις and his wonderful entechna song, a kind of popular music, but made using traditional Greek instruments and often also ancient classical lyrics. However, this music is more artistic than what we usually understand by the name of "popular music".
If we are looking for something inspired by ancient Greece, then Daemonia Nymphe is irreplaceable.
Coming back to the present, it is also worth listening to Greek jazz. The ECM is masterful in discovering pearls in which one can hear the influences of traditional music and such a gem is the Sokratis Sinopoulos quartet (Σωκράτης Σινόπουλος).
Finally, I would like to end by presenting three more artists who have a strong link to the Balkans, but who do not come from those sides. Fire goes German Shantelb>, especially his "Disko Partizani" album, strongly inspired by Balkan music combining it with danceable electronics.
A turbo-folk version of folklore is presented by Balkan Beat Box.
One of Balkan Beat Box members used to belong to Gogol Bordello, a New York band that combines punk with gypsy music, with many Romanian, gypsy and Balkan influences in their work. Explosive mixture.
I hope you have been able to visit some kind of a little bit more crazy regions of Europe with me, despite not leaving Steem blockchain ;). The music I presented accompanied me during my Balkan voyages, I got to know some of it during travelling, some of it I've discovered after my return. I always hear and will hear Balkan rhythms while remembering experiences from this region.
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Nice post @saunter
Thank you :)