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Goran Bregović |
04.09.2004. -
Pula, Arena |
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GORAN
BREGOVIĆ and his Wedding and Funeral Band
SRoots in the Balkans where he stems from, head in the
21st Century which he fully inhabits, Goran Bregović's
music marries sounds of a gypsy brass band with
traditional Bulgarian polyphonies, those of an electric
guitar and traditional percussion with a curious rock
accent…. all against a background of a bedevilled string
orchestra and deep sonorities of a male choir, creating
music that our soul recognises instinctively and the
body greets with an irresistible urge to dance.
He was born in Sarajevo. After a few years of (very
unenthusiastic) music studies at the conservatory
(violin), Goran forms his first group "The White Button"
at the age of sixteen. Composer and guitar player , he
admits his immoderate love for rock n'roll.
Follow fifteen years with his group "The White Button",
marked by marathon-tours and endless sessions of
autographing in which Goran plays youth idol in Eastern
countries until he's sick and tired of it.
At the end of the eighties Bregović takes time away from
this permanent hustle-bustle to compose music for
Kusturica’s "Times of the Gypsies", and to make his
childhood dream come true: to live in a small house on
the Adriatic coast. The War in Yugoslavia shatters this,
and many other dreams, and Goran has to abandon
everything to find exile in Paris…
Coming from the same background, the same generation,
survivors of the same experiences, Goran Bregović and
Emir Kusturica formed a tandem which didn’t need words
to communicate. After "Times of the Gypsies" Goran had a
free hand to compose the original soundtrack for
"Arizona Dream".
Patrice Chereau entrusts him with the music for "La
Reine Margot", Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in
1994. Goran delivers a majestic piece with rock accents.
The music for Emir Kusturica’s "Underground", Palme d’Or
at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, was also signed by
Goran. But not the following film. A three year
collaboration on "Underground" has worn everyone out and
Emir has to find a whole new team for his next film
"White Cat Black Cat".
Recently Goran composed spicy music with a "kletzmer"
aroma for the "Train de Vie" of Radu Mihaleanu acclaimed
by the critics in Venice, Sao Paulo, Berlin and by the
public everywhere it was shown.
He has since devoted himself to the interpretation of
his own music and lent himself to a second stage-career.
Without completely abandoning the movies, however: Nana
DJORDJAZE " 27 Missing Kisses " in 2001, Unni STRAUME "
Music for Weddings & Funerals " in 2002 (original music
and the main male role). In 2004 Bregovic repeats the
same adventure: he composes music and plays the main
role in an Italian film entitled "Giorni di Abandono"
("The days of Abandon") to be premiered in Autumn 2005.
"Silence of the Balkans" was a very ambitious multimedia
project performed in 1997. Then a collaboration with
Teatro Stabile from Trieste for whom he wrote the stage
music for a very unusual "Hamlet", and Goran Bregović
starts enjoying writing for the theatre. Follows a
collaboration with one of the most "in" Italian
directors, Marco Bailani for whom he writes the music
for "The Children’s Crusade" (created November 1999).
Recently Bregovic wrote music for a stage setting of
Dante's "Divine Comedy".
In 1995, with a band of ten traditional musicians, a
choir of fifty singers and a symphony orchestra, he
undertakes a series of mega-concerts in Greece and
Sweden followed by the concert given October 26th at the
Forest National of Brussels for an audience of 7500.
Very few concert performances in 1996 as the idea of a
hundred and twenty performers on stage scared even the
most enthusiastic promoters.
In June 1997, the group is reduced to fifty musicians
for a two hour concert with the music he composed for
films. And it’s one success after another. Bregovic
undertakes a triumphal tour throughout Europe with his
Wedding and Funeral Band presenting live his most
beautiful pieces from the famous " Ederlezi" (Time of
the Gypsies) to the " In the Death Car" (Arizona Dream)
and the energetic "Kalasnikov" (Underground) taking off
as delirious audience echoes the with the powerful
"Juris" (Charge ! !). The number of entries – between
3,500 and 10,000 per concert - and the concert given May
1st at the Piazza St. Giovanni in Rome in front of
500.000 people confirm beyond any doubt that his music
now has a real impact on an international level.
Goran Bregovic continues his career, and the young local
rock mega-star of the 70s and the 80s asserts his
authority as a mature, successful, international
composer.
Like a happy grown up child, Goran is amazed to be
collaborating with such important performers from
diverse cultures – people he would have asked for an
autograph not so long ago : Iggy Pop, whom he totally
reinvents (Arizona Dream 1993), Ofra Haza (La Reine
Margot,1994), Cesaria Evora (Underground 1995), Scot
WALKER in UK, Setzen Aksu in Turkey, George Dalaras in
Greece, Kayah in Poland.
Giovanni Feretti asked Goran Bregović to be the
ambassador of music from the orthodox countries for a
night-long fiesta on June 27. Goran called it "Hot
Balkan Roots" and invited three brass bands (one from
Bulgaria, one from Rumania and another one from Serbia)
and a group of Russian female voices.
To start off his Italian tour in Summer 2000, Goran
concocted a "Big Wedding in Palermo" for the Santa
Rosalia Celebration on July 14, for which he shared
artistic direction with the famous musicologist and
composer from Naples, Roberto de Simone. For just one
very special night, Goran a assembled artists from
countries that he calls his " musical feeding-ground " -
between Budapest and Istanbul.
The latest adventure is entitled "Bregovic’s Karmen with
a Happy End", the first Carmen with a K and a Balkan
accent. A combination of naïve theatre and opera,
"Karmen" was premiered in Italy on April 17 2004.
Written, composed and directed by Goran Bregovic.
Goran Bregović is working on a projects/commission to
make a sequel to "My Heart has become Tolerant.
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