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Written in fRoots issue 214, 2001

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Srbija: Sounds Global
K.V.S./FreeB92 FreeB92 CD 008 (2000)

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Pofolkuj Sobie!
Polskie Radio PRCD 232 (2000)

Compilations are rife, and many are a fast-food meze conveying no real understanding or flavour. A good one, it seems to me, should either open new vistas or reawaken forgotten pleasures. The very best not only do that but unveil a fresh, “what’s that?” delight at each track-turning and make one eager to investigate further.
      Here are two shining examples of the latter, each dealing with vibrant new roots developments in a particular country - Serbia and Poland respectively - and providing ample evidence that something special is unfolding in each of them. That both are compiled by radio stations is perhaps significant.

      In his notes to Srbija: Sounds Global, put together by Belgrade’s Radio B92, Djordje Tomić writes “In contrast to the situation in the former republics of Yugoslavia in which ex rock musicians - today reputable artists who define the nation - have already engaged in recording ‘roots’ albums, this kind of crossover in Serbia is still a taboo. The global tide of ‘native sounds’ is regarded as a deviation and hype which, hopefully, will soon come to an end.” He speaks of the new evolutions that are nevertheless gathering pace, and goes on, “Of course, in order to get a new audience for the music based on tradition, you have to approach tradition as something more than an ethnographic exhibit; you have to be able to summon the spirits, whose presence makes any great music of the world ‘our’ music.”
      Given Serbia’s history, of course, the perception of what are the components and antecedents of ‘our’ music could be contentious to the point of violence. Though the English translation doesn’t quite differentiate what is irony from what isn’t, it seems Tomić is taking an inclusive rather than nationalist-purist line; “this is the unknown territory which you can explore in your own (ex)backyard, starting from the Kosovo Turks, through electric Gypsy bands, to tambura players from Krajina”, he says.
      So among the twelve unfailingly interesting tracks on the album we get violinist Lajko Felix playing with Gypsy brass band the Boban Marković Orchestra, and elsewhere playing heavily syncopated zither, Mica Petrović’s non-Gypsy brass band, and clarinettist Ognejen Popović with a band of violin, accordeon, guitar, bass and tambura. Majestic deep-voiced Svetlana Spajić sings both unaccompanied solo and in duet with Minja Nikolić. There are the lyrical violins, electric guitar, cimbalom, bass and percussion of jazzy Gypsy band Earth-Wheel-Sky Ensemble, and multi-instrumentalist Darko Macura on duduk, tambura and vocal. Vladimir Nikić’s serenely echoing grace-noting accordeon floats over slow chord movement, the slow, powerful male vocal of Dragoslav Pavle Aksentijevik arches over trilling tambura and thudding tapan, and saxist Boris Kovač’s LaDaABa (LaDanzaApocalypsaBalcanica) Orchest delivers The Last Balkan Tango.

      Poland is much further down its very distinctive new-roots path, often quirky and eccentrically eclectic, typified by a bold clattering in which Polish highland fiddling, whistle playing and singing meets with the lasting effects of Trebunie Tutki's reggae collaborations including Twinkle Inna Polish Stylee. Pofolkuj Sobie!, proving a chart success in Poland, is put together by Polskie Radio and Kamahuk, the alliance that first anthologised the new Polish moves on 1993’s Bring It All Home, surprising many European world music pundits with Poland’s energetic off-the-wall wackiness.
     A much more on-the-case set than Weltwunder’s 1999 Travellin’ Companion compilation which, while including some of the same artists such as Trebunie Tutki, Berklejdy, Kapela Ze Wsi Warszawa and the St.Nicholas Orchestra, and even a couple of the same tracks, diminished its impact with some odd track choices and lame spots, this one comprises tracks that have already proved popular with radio listeners, and introduces a lot of extra notables. For example, there’s the twin Golec brothers’ uOrkiestra moving between Latin brass and sweet-droll crooning over violin and accordeon, Rawianie i Sasiedzi’s traditional fiddle and accordion duet morphing through slap-bass and soprano sax jazz licks and degenerating into dub-echoes, a track from Polish pop singer Kayah’s felicitous collaboration with Serbia's Goran Bregović, and clown Pawel Kukiz, emoting with composer Catherina Gärtner’s Max Klezmer Band on No Opolskim Rynku, illustrating the kinship between klezmer, Gypsy and circus music.
      Nineteen tracks in which tradition is well understood, then juggled, slapped and spun with liberating abandon.



© 2001 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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