Because right now I am in completely different part of the world - on top of Northern Iceland - its probably just natural that at certain point I will be compelled to look back affectionately at my own backyard and check out something that under normal circumstances I would probably never listen. It is regional Krapina festival that has been going on forever in small, hilly part of Croatian countryside and it has been nurturing local kind of music, almost exclusively performed in local regional dialect of Zagorje. Completely unconcerned with commercial aspect of the business and the fact that this music/recordings might be only of passing interest to locals, Krapina festival has been quietly going on for decades, attracting artists who are in it for the sheer pleasure of being part of something as uncompromising as cherishing the tradition of regional chanson even though it exist completely outside of hit making machinery. For years I have been looking down at this festival because in my ignorance I associated it with certain cliché but than again, almost every festival has some recognizable trait so we can safely describe each of them as certain stereotype. Krapina happen to grow and flourish in a countryside associated with drinking and good time, so naturally music reflect this, for better or worse.
Krapina '68
The most interesting aspect of this collection (and still a very interesting idea) is inclusion of several operatic stars in what is basically lightweight festival of popular songs performed in local, regional dialect. The whole idea of organizing a music festival that would unrepentantly focus exclusively on a something that is completely out of the mainstream and creating a songbook that might appeal only to particular audience (who would understand Zagorje dialect) is very brave indeed. But apparently it worked and even though its completely off-the-wall and not commercial, it attracted the following, even managed a evergreen or two that radio plays to this days.
The album is divided between two completely different sides: operatic and popular.
Surprisingly (or perhaps not at all) because I expected never ending list of drinking songs and lively polkas the A side with operatic singers turns out to be real music pleasure and discovery. Excellent singers who obviously relished the occasion, all of them easily blow the orchestra away and even though this kind of art song is not really suited for radio play, when someone like Krunoslav Cigoj unleash that golden voice, it is a pure joy. The biggest discovery is dramatic and almost atonal poem "Inje" (The Frost) performed and composed by great Vladimir Ruždjak, which sound as something out of Horror soundtrack - it caught my attention immediately with his heroic voice and stunning backing chorus, its really a chilling, unforgettable performance completely outside of what we usually expect and associate with Krapina festival.
Difficult to follow such assembly of operatic talents, but organizers obviously wanted to create something for the masses so therefore side B is all about popular ditties tailored to sound like traditional folk music from this region. This means tamburitza galore, drinking songs, polkas and basically every cliché we know about Krapina. Nothing wrong with it and performers are fine, it probably got more radio play than operatic side but to my ears this all plays too safe and it doesn't bring anything new - I cherish the album exclusively because of the A side and operatic singers who actually dared to bring something substantial.
Krapina '70
No more operatic singers this time as organizers obviously decided to make it more radio friendly and appealing to wider audiences, as the names included are without exception well-known pop singers. There might be a strong political undertone to all of this, as festival has been built exclusively around the spirit of regional pride but it might be only my own hindsight. Vice Vukov has honor to sing "Dobro mi došel prijatelj" as opener and its by far the strongest song here, truly unforgettable, lilting poetry in music that survived ever since (it became surprising radio hit again some seventeen years later, when it was used as official anthem for Zagreb's Univerzijada international sport games). The rest is more or less what we expect from Krapina festival, lots of tamburitza, drinking songs about friendship or beloved old homes, if you heard one of those, they all basically very much alike. This is not to criticize Krapina because every single of our popular festivals milked very much same cliché - just look at Split festival that apparently unwittingly serves music about sea, sailors, drinking and good old home forever - its just that after a while it does become tiresome and only someone like Vice Vukov and Gabi Novak had sense to step outside of the box and use local dialect as a stepping point for exploring possibility of creating regional chanson that might be poetic and timeless.
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