Arsenije Jovanović / Ivana Stefanović ‎- Concerto Grosso Balcanico / Lacrimosa (1993)

Shared release between two Serbian composers, who have previously been posted here in their own right - Jovanović with an untitled collection, and Stefanović with Inner Landscape. According to the liner notes, both were asked in the Spring of 1993 to produce a piece for Austrian radio, as they "were among the most renowned radio artists in Europe."  What they brought with them were immediate and raw first-hand experiences of Yugoslavia's turbulent last days; as Jovanović noted, "There is an inevitable link to the war still being waged as I write this."

Jovanović's 16-minute Concerto Grosso Balcanico sets out a peaceful, rural scene at first, with bells, birds and sheep, but very quickly introduces tenser elements of an ominous clatter and then an electronic layer that comes on like a distant helicopter.  Barking dogs introduce a rhythmic element as some sped-up tapes enter, and the piece becomes progressively more ominous until the unmistakable sound of gunfire dominates the final minutes.

Gunshots are also the first sound used in Stefanović's 25-minute Lacrimosa, which then unfolds as a much more musical piece, albeit heavily collaged.  Samples of Requiem music from Pergolesi, Mozart, Penderecki and Britten are mixed with documentary tapes from the streets of Sarajevo in May 1992.  As Stefanović remembered: "They were all together for the last time: Serbs, Muslims and Croats."  After a final social gathering, with a poignant exchange of Shaloms, the piece ends on a plaintive acapella song.  Both these pieces are deeply affecting in their material and background story, are superbly recorded and arranged, and will definitely stay with you after listening.  Highly recommended.

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pw :sgtg

Arsenije Jovanović - s/t (1994 compi of works 1977-1993)

Four remarkable and engrossing works from Serbian radiophonic composer (and theatre, radio and television director, and author/professor) Arsenije Jovanović, b. 1932.  We're in similar sonic and conceptual territory here to Ivana Stefanović, who I posted last year - they even shared an album once, which I'll need to track down.

For today, we join Jovanović on a few of his many travels, first of all in a cave in an old abandoned Serbian village.  Invasions (1978) is certainly an apt primer for what an accomplished sound recordist and mixer Jovanović is - goes without saying this a headphones turned up the max album - as the sounds for voice, percussion and a wind instrument bounce around the eerie space.  We stay underground for Resava Cave (1977), where the percussive sounds apparently include the stalagmites and stalagtites in Jovanović's search for the natural, timeless acoustic.  He also wanted the vocal performers to sound as primally liberated as possible, the unsettling results suggesting that million-year-old spirits have been summoned.

Back on the earth's surface, Jovanović hears some very strange seagulls on an uninhabited island, and learns that elderly donkeys were once abandoned there, the birds over time mimicking their forlorn cries.  His liner note then veers off into an unrelated donkey encounter, and doesn't clarify whether or not the sound sources for Island Of The Dying Donkeys (1988) feature authentic field recordings and/or recreations - most of the voices sound suspiciously human.  Either way, the 20-minute piece is so head-spinningly bizarre that it simply has to be heard to be believed.

Finally, Jovanović returns home, and reflects on some of the many odd objects and strange sounds that he's collected over the years. (This is as much as I could figure out from the description, the French record label's liner note translator having apparently given up at this point.)  Ma Maison (1993) certainly sounds like an extended inventory of interesting sounds, from voice, percussion, wind instruments and all kinds of environmental recordings.  As with everything on this collection, the end result just sounds phenomenal, which is probably the main reason I keep going back to it repeatedly.  Highly recommended.

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