The first part of mid-1970s compilation that celebrates famous so-called "Zagreb school of chanson" this wonderful album focuses on artists who promoted chanson as an art form locally - the phenomenon started in early 1960s as reaction to ubiquitous festivals of pop music and initially it included actors as well as singers, apparently it was genuinely hotbed of creativity outside of mainstream. Because it never gained commercial appeal, it was mainly followed in the urban areas but every now and than someone sneaked into big stages of popular festivals so our homemade chansons were fairly well known - Chansonfest still goes on and local festival in Krapina is basically chanson performed in particular dialect.
The names represented here comes as no surprise - they are all without exception big, legendary names in Croatian popular music and the level of sophistication, poetry and inspiration is staggering. It must be noted that each single of them seriously followed certain standards that consciously rejected banality associated with pop jingles, so although it sounds like fight with windmills, for a while they thrived on music as the art form instead as entertainment. The whole group included here worked and existed shoulder to shoulder with smörgåsbord of various other entertainers on TV (in my childhood that would include folk singers, rockers and basically variety shows) but they were accepted as artists - perhaps not the most uplifting, more of melancholic sort, definitely highly respected and kind of music played late in the night on the radio. I hear it now again, many years now after I had LP initially and its even better than I remember back than - from the lyrics and arrangements to performances themselves, it shows high level of very endearing artistic consciousness that excludes commercial appeal for decidedly reflective direction, kind of music one listens when alone. Highly recommended, though language barrier might be a problem for listeners who won't get the beauty of lyrics.
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