Hold my yeni raki, boza, ouzo, airan, tuica, salgam or some other beverage discovered within the shops of the Balkan peninsula. I’m about to climb a mountain no different moderator will ever dare to confess is well worth the climb.
Open your Google Maps, placed on the headphones and let’s go.
Not whereas in the past my spouse invited me to a dinner along with her colleagues. In Germany, at a Lebanese restaurant an Italian scholar was handing out the menus for the night and we had been partaking in a small speak exercise.
An excerpt of the dialog:
Participant 1 to me: “And you, what music do you want listening to?”Me: “I like Serbian music. Dino Merlin particularly.”Participant 2: “Dino Merlin just isn’t Serbian, he’s Bosnian.”
And this would be the matter of our write-cast as we speak. No, not Dino Merlin or his nationality. The matter might be every thing we may have mentioned with Participant 2, however was decreased to “Oh, sorry.”.
Has any of you performed any model of Sid Meyer’s Civilization? Long story quick, it’s a flip primarily based technique recreation the place you construct a civilization beginning on a random level on a random map. The success and ease of this course of was largely outlined by how shut your neighbors are to you. The tighter it get, the tougher it was to keep up clear borders.
But music is aware of no borders, neither it succumbs to language differentiation.
A couple of years in the past I used to be hitch mountain climbing by way of Turkey with a cellphone holding 42 (sure, 42) songs of my folks (Bulgarian language songs) that had been deliberate as an icebreaker on longer street journeys. One of them was Greshnica by Toni Storaro.
https://open.spotify.com/track/6RpQGSSlmKkViRRBLO8HYX?si=cfd01e743a574bfc
The second it began enjoying the motive force acquired excited and shouted “I do know this track! This is Zalim by Yalin!”
https://open.spotify.com/track/6aEEq4m2qAuRKV8wr3Y40Y?si=10b8db0d719f4ffc
Needless to say the track did its job and broke the ice and we had a enjoyable journey.
But what would occur in the event you did the identical on a hitchhiking street journey in a rustic 4 nations and 1300 km away from the place the above occurred? Take a breath – it can occur simply the identical factor. The nation is Albania and the track is Zemer by Rovena Stefa. (Currently not accessible on Spotify, however some day we may have all of the songs accessible, together with this one.)
There had been different songs on the cellphone as nicely. One of them was picked as a gateway to a robust binding expertise as soon as discussions about borders, faith and tradition heated up. I knew this track has a model on any of the nations of the Balkans. The causes for which might be faith, tradition and historical past. Long clarification quick – it’s positively extra possible for folks to be happier when spring arrives and to start out singing, proper?
Another viewpoint I’d wish to share is about music in a roundabout way transcending the constraints of “W” questions. A track simply is and the singers are its prophets.
This is the sixth of May in a track:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1o1OV9FDx4l4Qri6TldEfL?si=3c159d905b6a4c75
The Bulgarian language model is concerning the sixth of May and the native vacation of St. George’s day.
Another Bulgarian singer has sung this track in a unique language. Also concerning the arrival of spring on the sixth of May, however this time the vacation is Ederlez (Google it).
https://open.spotify.com/track/4H9vyV5bMG58qy9cHa5WT4?si=0363325ace7a4c65
The identical track because the one above has been sung in the identical language by the orchestra of Goran Bregovich himself. Start of spring, Ederlez.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0iJgOtbNDJg7A7iFfAdd3R?si=309dbe78036f4eb3
My favourite model of this track is by Alen Islamovic – Djurdjevdan, as a result of it sings concerning the arrival of spring, this time described by way of the scent of lily-of-the-valley. A flower blooming across the sixth of May.
https://open.spotify.com/track/7BUFD1U7AlKszTQvJzn4Qv?si=88484b5e08bc4291
I guess 5 euros that this track has a Greek, Turkish, Romanian, Croatian, Serbian and Albanian (sorry, if I missed one) language variations. Are you capable of finding them?
Sometimes after I journey between the Balkan nations I wish to think about I’m crossing right into a paralell universe the place a single occasion in historical past has cascaded within the universe’s inhabitants creating a unique language, however maintaining the identical spirit and tradition and make it a problem to search out the songs of their people who match those from our universe. Do they sing about the identical heartbreaking moments, did they go to the identical membership and noticed the identical fairly lady worthy of a track? How a lot does the life story of the individual singing the track differ between universes? As unusual as this sounds, not understanding the language of the international, but shut track helps rather a lot find the solutions.
One such favourite is Roza preached by Dimitris Mitropanos:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2uh88Sbc5kFNV8p2cfrFsP?si=ffd24fbe345c41e7
Really, I do not know what this track is about, however I’m fairly certain it’s a couple of lengthy story ending sadly.
The identical track manifested itself in Bulgarian as nicely. From the voice of one other sad-voiced singer, Konstantin – Cherna Roza
https://open.spotify.com/track/2NteSCt9EuC29eNBS7xlBJ?si=bbb0399586cb4920
Sad male voices have one thing to them, which I’m not capable of describe. Could you assist me out within the feedback?
Mentioning legendary male voices from throughout the Balkans, Saban Saulic has additionally helped a track discover its strategy to our world. The track is known as Ti Me Varas Najbole:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3E1Wo7jLELumUmNsYmL3Nh?si=5a320393f9614dc3
The identical track has been made well-known in different elements of the world by Raina – Ti me Lajesh Nai-Dobre. Currently not accessible on Spotify, however we’re engaged on making all of the songs from all of the universes accessible on our platform.
Changing pitch and rhythm we are able to discover totally different manifestations of this track throughout the multiverse: Hej, srce by Sandra Afrika
https://open.spotify.com/track/7zVTk8qyYyuLKmQWUMexYZ?si=93cf619d77ea4645
Pey, sartse by Galena (This one is particularly near my coronary heart, as a result of it begins with the identify of my spouse sang by one other musical prophet that helped many songs manifest themselves in our world):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7KCXvA8KUEIjN3kiaGRyIh?si=cd28f8fa6d464375
Keeping the celebration rhythm, we are able to discover one other border crossing track, Zek Zek by Gagi Band and Vlez by Tsvetelina Yaneva
Gagi Band letting Zek Zek in our world:
https://open.spotify.com/track/37KImoz77MkBexfzUXHrwA?si=2d0b25b1ff754326
Tsvetelina Yaneva popularizing it throughout borders:
https://open.spotify.com/track/168z8Lrpy2oOrYSgrK6C2v?si=b12d0f52e8e24830
Once in a decade a track is born in such a approach that each one imaginary geographical constructs are erased from the map. This one broke all of the Balkan border checkpoints:
“Dyavolat me kara” sung by Galena:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6B1sSiiIbF0AAYSNQ7zkbu?si=f191888c87ff4a72
“Zadnja sansa” by Amra Halebic:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3xl78QbiugYv4SMsp3B3fP?si=9fa21cf4c5e24391
“10 Poze am cu tine” by Adrian Minune himself:
https://open.spotify.com/track/07B86MinPo0Zl8gHohU2r2?si=05480a89292c4c60
“O shpirt” by Bashkim Spahiu (might be accessible on Spotify some day, we are going to proceed to attempt in the direction of this purpose)
“Dqvola para izkara” by Mom4eto
https://open.spotify.com/track/5UnA7doBvFDdpKs90fp8dE?si=3296a055e10740c1
Some songs are so arduous hitting that the universe cannot deal with the state multiplicity and is unable to go wider than two. When the voice of the singers and the rhythm of the track match the Balkan spirit in such a approach that altering the language of the track is unneccesary for it to change into an immediate hit.
“Sen Trope” by Florin Salam:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5L3dE30wwebKXn4lwUQkoC?si=b762f897a5154276
And finally, the King himself:
“Sen Trope” by Azis:
https://open.spotify.com/track/11ELEGzmuK6ENekjKFai3e?si=b14dfe2ad2ec4d2a
Are you capable of finding border crossing manifestations in your a part of the globe? Post them within the feedback to allow them to be sung in all of the universes.