Kalemegdan Disk - ROCK FROM EASTERN EUROPE

Croatia Records Release Information

Bilja Krstić from Niš has been present on the Yugoslavian music scene for many years. After notable engagements in the groups Suncokret (Sun Flower) and Rani Mraz (Early Frost) during he 1970s, she began a solo career characterized by a combination of traditional music and a modern approach to production. The start of the collaboration with Jugoton Croatia Records will be marked by a new studio release with the symbolic name “Biljur” (Pebble).

Nine emotional performances of popular and well-known traditional ethno songs dawned in a new guise, accompanied by the great Bistrik Orchestar. “Kaleš Angja” (Olive-Skinned Angja), “Mlada Jelka ljubi Janka” (Young Jelka Kisses Janko), “Bolna ljuba, bolna leži” (Painful Kisses, Painful Lies) and “Šanko si Bonka zalibi” (Šanko loves Bonka) are just some of the musical numbers that will be enjoyed by all lovers of traditional music in the Yugoslavian area. All songs were recorded in the Bistrik, MT and Multimedia studio under the production baton of Pavel Bogdanović.

“Gladly sung, happy, wistful, simple, demanding, forgotten – these songs were a challenge to perform and arrange in the style and manner by which our work is recognizable. The melographic record and the origin of each was dictated by (for me) an exciting, poignant and authentic story whose protagonists were Donka, Jelka, Bonka, Anđa and many other nameless and timeless, but real girls; young women who resisted established social norms fighting for the right to choose despite a possible tragic outcome. Feminine, radiant and unique as an ornament of time, as a mountain spring – as a mirror in which their unhappy love is reflected. Hence the name of the album “Biljur” for brilliance, clairvoyance, for the clear water through which we have been traveling from the source for more than 20 years,” said Bilja Krstić.

The Bistrik Orchestra, consisting of Dragomir “Miki Stanojević (piano), Nenad Josifović (violin), Slobodan “Bata Božanić (bass guitar), Nebojša Brdarić (flute, duduk), Maja Klinski (tarabuka, Cajun, small percussion, backing vocals), Ruža Rudić (bendir, small percussion, backing vocals), Nataša Mihaljinac and Nevenka Bakoč (backing vocals, daire) provided an irreplaceable support for the melancholic vocals of Bilja Krstić.

Their albums “Hand Made”, “Zapisi” (Notes), “Tarpoš” (Tarpoš), “Izvorište / A cappella” (Source / A cappella), and “Tradicionalne pjesme Srbije i Balkana” (Traditional Songs of Serbia and the Balkans) created between 2002 and 2017 were declared excellent ethno albums.

Tracklist

1. Šanko si Bonka zalibi 4:00
2. Mlada Jelka ljubi Janka 4:08
3. Калеш Анѓа (Kaleš Angja) 4:51
4. Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu 4:01
5. Pletenica – Ilirsko kolo 3:23
6. Niška Banja 3:40
7. Се посврши сербез Донка (Se posvrši serbez Donka) 3:44
8. Bolna ljuba, bolna leži 3:47
Bonus:
9. Калеш Анѓа (Kaleš Angja) ver. 2 4:51