Search - Vlatko Stefanovski & Miroslav Tadic :: Krushevo (Dig)

Odd-meter rhythms, archaic tunes and two virtuoso guitarists

Primoz Peterlin | 06/10/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What can be the outcome when two virtuoso guitar players with similar cultural roots, but different musical careers meet for a common project? In mid-seventies, Vlatko Stefanovski founded the Macedonian art-rock group Leb i sol (Bread and salt, the traditional Slavic welcome), which gained international fame and recorded in total 13 albums before the group was dismissed in the early nineties. In his subsequent solo career, Stefanovski turned more towards etno and jazz, recorded more albums, and wrote music theatrical performances and motion pictures. Miroslav Tadic, also a former Yugoslavia native, left his home country during study, which led him to Italy and finally USA. Since 1985, he has been teaching at the Californian Institute of Arts in Los Angeles. In their January 1997 issue, the editors of GUITAR PLAYER magazine voted Miroslav Tadic one of the world's 30 most radical and individual guitarists.In summer of 1997, Stefanovski and Tadic met for a recording session in Makedonium, in the small town Krushevo in the central Macedonia. Two acoustic guitars are recorded in a specific, almost sacred, chapel-like atmosphere of the interior of the Ilinden uprising memorial site monument.Recorded are ten Macedonian folk songs or dances - usually in an odd-meter rhythms and archaic scale structures - arranged for two acoustic guitar players (Tadic plays flamenco guitar on most tracks, and Stefanovski plays dobro on the last two tracks). The sound is clear with no often disturbing studio post-processing. Indeed, the guys sound just as splendid when you hear live (I had one such privilege at the Ljubljana Jazz festival last year).The whole project bears resemblance in spirit with earlier John McLaughlin/Paco De Lucia fusion sessions. If you like them, it is worth giving this album a chance, for not only you will hear two virtuoso guitarists at their best, but will bring you to - most likely - new and exotic rhythms and tunes of Macedonia."

Balkan Music on a Power Trip!

Erika Borsos | Gulf Coast of FL, USA | 01/10/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yamaha electric steel-string guitars provide the power surge and circuit revision to this already exotic and odd-metered Macedonian traditional music. The experiment works! Traditional folk tunes such as "Gajdavsko Oro", "Jano Mori", "Jovano Jovanka", "Dalino Vino Crveno", "Ajde Da Li Znaes pametis Milice" sound great when when played on the Sakura nylon guitar and Yamaha steel-stringed guitar. The melodies and rhythms remain unaltered but the quality of music becomes 21st century ... I love Macedonian folk music & the musicians ensure that the musical scales which create its uniqueness remain intact. *IF* you are a risk taker you'll have no regrets hearing Balkan music with a "new attitude". Erika Borsos (erikab93)."

No doubt: 5 stars!

JA | Chicago, US | 01/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vlatko Stefanovski has been using folk and traditional music as a basis for his music for many years. This time, it seems he did something completely different. He took folk music, rearranged it for two acoustic guitars, and recorded it. He couldn't do any better since his music heritage is so rich! His choice on where to record it is also unusual, but it turned out to be excellent choice. His talent, imagination, and sense for good music, combined with tradition of Balkan Peninsula... there is no doubt about it: 5 stars!"