En Passant Med Aksent

EM08 / 2001

GYPSY SONGS FROM THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

“He sings like Jacques Brel … Gypsy Music with strong Slavic accent” – Jazz Hot

“One of the forgotten musical pearls form last year” – Aftenposten

Vlada Kanic was born and grew up in Zemun, on the outskirts of Belgrade. He was already an established singer and musician in his homeland when he in 1968 came to Norway with his 5-man band and set out on a five-year tour playing in Scandinavian restaurants.

In his homeland he has won many festival prizes as a recording artist and composer. Some of his songs have become so popular over the years that they are sung as folk songs in what was once Yugoslavia. Since the breaking-up of Yugoslavia, as a Croatian born in Serbia, Vlada Kanic has also experienced that his songs are now only sung in the countries where they are ethnically and linguistically correct. During a politically strained time, due to the controversial lyrics, TV and radio stations in Belgrade boycotted some of the songs.

This CD includes traditional gypsy songs, self- composed songs and some tracks composed by other artists. All the lyrics are in Norwegian and are written by Vlada Kanic. The bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia has given us a picture of the Balkans as an incomprehensible battlefield. Vlada Kanic’s songs remove the dust from the splendours with which the antique peninsula and Europe’s cultural cradle have always been embellished.