MODRA RIJEKA

Oh, boy... On of the best ex-Yugoslavian and Bosnian albums. One of the best bands. "Modra Rijeka" made music based on Mak Dizdar's poems, and Dizdar is one of the best Bosnian poets, his poems are full of mysticism and beauty.

Occasional spoken words on album won't mean much if you don't know the language; however they fit between particular songs perfectly, because each song is a little story. The lyrics are recited by late Croatian theatre and movie actor Fabijan Sovagovic.

The music itself is beyond description. Beautiful multivocal harmonies, so typical for this band. Breathtaking acoustic guitar parts, comparable to the finest moments of Italian symphonic prog. Skillful guitar and keyboard solos. Tasteful bass lines. Indexi caught magic of Dizdar's lyrics perfectly. It's a pity that translation would be far too difficult task. Let me try...

Let's try to translate one of the shortest songs, "Blago".

First we have to remove all the "li" syllables from all the words in the song and then we get:

BLAGO

(Pastir Pastirici kao i Kralj Kraljici)

blaga nema do ocinjeg vida

draza si mi od ociju

draga

Now we can try to translate it:

TREASURE

(Shepherd to a Shepherdess as well as King to a Queen)

there is no treasure like eyesight

dearer you are than my eyes

my dear

.....etc. And that was an easy one. The whole album is, actually, about mankind and man's place in the universe. The title "Modra rijeka" (blue river) is actually allegorical symbol of life (hundred years river is wide, thousand years river is deep, about the length don't even dare to dream)...and music is here perfect tapestry for the lyrics, strong as lyrics themselves.

Therefore, this album is a masterpiece. A milestone, but a milestone of what? Absolutely out of time, and so easy to fit in any era. Astonishing.

I apologize in advance because I didn't gave you too many relevant infos about music itself. But in this case, I'm driven with emotions more than facts.

I'm rating it 6/5, but since most of you folks don't understand the language, you're missing half of the story. And the remaining half is enough to be called a masterpiece. 5/5.