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Balkan folk? What a bore, with those fanfares of tubas and trombones. The gypsy tradition? Let them listen to it in the nomadic camps. The Bulgarian choirs? Good for a laugh with Elio e le Storie Tese (although their choirs might be Romanian). Goran Bregovic? The usual sly guy taking advantage of his homeland's misfortunes to become famous... and so on.
Armed with these prejudices (quite silly, I admit, but if there are intelligent prejudices out there, someone please point them out to me), I borrowed this album almost unwillingly, driven only by vague curiosity. The next day, I was already begging my generous friend to make me a copy. Yet, as a classical music enthusiast, I knew that Eastern Europe was a vast reservoir of folk melodies, from which even Brahms had drawn in the 19th century, not to mention the fanatic Bartok, who roamed the Balkan peninsula to record tons of material with the means of his time. But I never imagined that under current conditions, those unfortunate countries could express a sort of Slavic Peter Gabriel, a musician of great vision capable of reworking his people's songs with skillful electronic touches, also happily merging them with the most distant music of the world.
Goran Bregovic was born in Sarajevo to a Serbian father and a Croatian mother: it sounds like a hustler's invention to sell more, but it's only coincidence. The subtitle of this beautiful collection downplays it: "Music for Weddings and Funerals". In reality, it is often excellent film music, those of his friend Emir Kusturica (co-author of some tracks) which have revealed something about these peoples, so close and yet so mysterious.
Let's start with the dreaded Balkan fanfares: not only is their presence in "Ederlezi" minimal, but where they appear ("Mesecina/Moonlight", "Cajesukarije Cocek"), tubas, trombones, and trumpets follow with an unthinkable agility rhythms on the verge of the frenetic, giving the whole a lively and sparkling tone. The Bulgarian choirs, majestic but far from heavy, have a much greater importance. They enter at the most touching moments of the scenes, providing chilling sonorities of ancient sacred music: valuable examples of this are two crescendo episodes like "La nuit" and "Ederlezi". But when necessary, they can add an extra touch of darkness to a peremptory and inspired rock like "TV Screen", already made quite dark and spectral by the Bowie-esque singing of a graced Iggy Pop. "7/8 & 11/8" is choral and instrumental magic, especially after the entry of a thunderous drum, which together with the usual choirs shifts the tone decidedly towards the tragic. Other beautiful instrumentals: "Death", a diabolic and sulfurous danse macabre, anything but exorcising, and "Dreams", a paradisiacal idyll for angelic solo voice and choir.
The contaminations are varied and successful. Slavic melancholy marries Afro-Portuguese saudade of Cesaria Evora in "Ausencia", but also with the eternal Middle Eastern lament, the sublime elegy of Israeli Ofra Haza in "Elo Hi", and even with the sensuality of tango in the slow and intriguing "Underground Tango". And America, which brought a bit of freedom, many mines, and quite a bit of depleted uranium to Bregovic's parts, how is it viewed? Well, without resentment, not much different from here: "American Dreamers" is a spoken country, with Johnny Depp as the narrator, "Man From Reno" is sung with a crooner's voice by Scott Walker, and no one would imagine it on a Slavic music album.
But by now, towards the end of the album, one is no longer surprised by Bregovic's versatility, in fact, one expects that at any moment he might also prove adept at reggae, Indian sitars, or African percussion, and that he hasn't done so yet only because the opportunity hasn't arisen.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Mesečina / Moonlight (03:59)
Nema vise sunca
Nema vise meseca
Nema tebe, nema mene
Niceg vise, nema joj.
Pokriva nas ratna tama
Pokriva nas tama joj.
A ja se pitam moja draga
Sta ce biti sa nama?
Mesecina, mesecina,
joj, joj, joj, joj
Sunce sija ponoc bije,
joj, joj, joj, joj
Sa nebesa, zaproklija
Niko ne zna, niko ne zna
Niko ne zna, niko ne zna
Niko ne zna sta to sija
17 Ederlezi (03:43)
Same amala oro kelena
Oro kelena dive kerena
Sa o Roma
(Amaro dive Amaro dive, Ederlezi Ej... ah... )
Sa o Roma, babo, babo
Sa o Roma, o daje
Sa o Roma, babo, babo
Ej, Ederlezi
Sa o Roma, daje
Sa o Roma babo, E bakren cinen.
A me coro, dural besava.
A a daje, amaro dive.
Amaro dive erdelezi.
Ediwado babo, amenge bakro.
Sa o Roma, babo. E bakren cinen.
Eeee...j, Sa o Roma, babo babo, Sa o Roma daje.
Sa o Roma, babo babo, Erdelezi. Erdelezi, Sa o Roma Daje.
Eeee... Sa o Roma, babo babo, Sa o Roma daje. Sa o Roma, babo babo, Eeee...
Erdelezi, Erdelezi.
Sa o Roma Daje
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