Proggin' in communism: Prog in ex-Yugoslavia

My fav Točak's  instrumental (solo LP) - "MODIFANS" (1976), a really great hard fusion track (listen it loud!) 

Edited by ko - August 14 2010 at 12:42

AWESOME!

---------------------------------------Korni Grupa-----------------------------------

 

Korni Grupa (Korni Group)

Founded: 1968

Country: Serbia*

Genre: Progressive Rock, Folk Rock, Rock, Symphonic Rock

Years Active: 1968 – 1974

 

Former Members:

Kornelije Kovač
Miroslava Kojadinović
Borko Kacl
Bojan Hreljac
Vladimir Furduj
Dušan Prelević
Dalibor Brun
Dado Topić
Zdravko Čolić
Zlatko Pejaković
Josip Boček

·      *Don’t worry, next time it will be a band not from Serbia

 

Discography:

§  Korni Grupa (1972)

§  Not An Ordinary Life (1974)

 

 

Formation:

Korni Grupa was formed in 1968 by keyboarder Kornelije Kovac (Who the band is named after), Guitarist Borko Kacl, bass guitarist Bojan Hreljac, drummer Vladimir “Furda” Furduj and singstress Miroslava Kojadinovic. The bands first live appearance was at the famous Belgrade Dom Sindikata during the Spotsman of the year ceremony. They performed with female dancers who “pleasantly” surprised the audience (You know what I mean). Soon afterwards the show “Studio VI vam pruza sansu “ (Studio VI is giving you a chance) invited the band to perform. Miroslava Kojadinovic did not like the songs chosen for the show and refused to sing and Kornelije Kovac acted as vocalists in her stead. She was excluded from the band shortly after, quite obviously.

 

New Vocalist and recognition:

The band hired soul singer Dusan “Prele” Prelovic who will be remembered not for his singing but more for his actions, more on that later.

At the time Kornelije Kovac focused primarily on progressive rock but the fans requested a more commercial song, which Kornelije wrote called “Cigu-ligu” (No Video, sorry everyone) for the 1986 “Jugovizija” festival in Zagreb (Croatia). Singer Prelovic arrived quite drunk to the festival and got into an argument with founder Kovac and was fired at the spot. Korni Grupa had now changed their vocalists twice in the same year (Not even Journey managed that) but has found a suitable replacement: Dalibor Brun from Rijeka (Croatia). With Brun they have recorded some of their greatest hits.

 

 

Magicna Ruka (Magic Hand):

 

 

           

Sonata:

 

 

Korni Grupa also appeared on the Singing Europe festival in Netherlands where they performed the song “Pastir i cvet” and won the “most original band” award. They might have used questionable substances but this nice psychedelic song is very enjoyable.

Pastir i cvet:

Their first concert as a band was held 1969 in Belgrade which they called "Uz malu pomoc mojih frendova" (With a little help from my friends) (The first one who guesses which band wrote this song gets a cookie).

Brun and Kacl left the band and were replaced by famous musician Dado Topic (Who was mentioned at least 3 times on my blog before) and guitarist Josip Bocek.

The 70's and well deserved fame:

With the new members Korni Grupa decided to primarily concentrate on progressive rock

Etida (Thanks to Blackmore):

Prvo svetlo u kuci broj 4 "First light in house No. 4":

 

For those wondering what Kovac is saying:

"The next composition is one of our songs, quite long but very good, written by Dado Topic. The composition "Prvo svetlo u kuci"" broj 4".

In 1971 Dado Topic left the band to form his own band "Time" (Go to page 1) and was replaced by famous singer Zdravko Colic. Zdravko Colic left the band after only 6 months and was replaced by Zlatko Pejakovic with whom the band recorded their first studio album "Korni Grupa" which is considered as one of the greatest albums in ex-Yugoslavia.

Moj bol (My pain) :

"Not an ordinary life":

"Not an ordinary life" is the first english album by Korni grupa and can only be voted as mediocre at best. Its failure is one of the reasons why the band disbanded.

Eurovision for Korni Grupa:

In 1974 the band participated on Eurovision ( For our american friends: Eurovision is a song contest in which european countries compete against each other for honor and glory!.... I may be overstating things but if your fueled by energy drinks you just stop caring after a while) with the song "Moja Generacija" (My generation, which is not a cover of the who song with the same name) and placed 12th (loosing to ABBAs "Waterloo")

Moja generacija:

Note: I could translate the german but I am far too tired to do it but there is a important part at the end

The german moderator said:

"They have on purpose declined a commercial song but therefore performed a very interesting musical piece on the stage in Brighton"

The end of Korni Grupa:

With the poor success of "Not an ordinary life" and the poor placing on the Eurovision song contest Kovac decided to close the chapter of Korni Grupa, one of the first and greatest bands of ex-Yugoslavia.

Future plans:

Dado Topic stated that there might be a reunion in 2012 on the occasion of Kovac 70th birthday.

I hope you enjoyed another blog entry and prepare for many more to come 

Edited by Weirdamigo - August 16 2010 at 15:07

I do own Smak's debut packed with their 1976' Satelit EP; I also bought the miliar stone Crna Dama. I have to say the latter is impressive and deserves more wide recognition on thi site.

Edited by Andrea Cortese - August 17 2010 at 12:08

eh ehe he

Weirdamigo, thanks for opening this post-blog! 

Mind you, there are already more than a few bands from exYU included on the PA, look here:

http://www.progarchives.com/Bands-country.asp?country=203

I personally take care of updating all info and reviewing many of the albums which are not yet evaluated. I hope you will contribute too.

Cheers!

Great job so far, Weirdamigo.Let the proggers all over the world hear some of the goods produced in our beloved Yugoslavia during golden times.I was visiting Bosnia&Serbia this past may and was deeply disappointed by state of musical affairs over there.Amount of "neo-turbo-folk" content on radio and TV stations is morbidly inadequate.I had hard time finding any quality(not pirate)cd's in Bosnia.Belgrade(Serbia)offered  little more,so I scored "Kongres rock majstora"(finally on cd),a great compilation of 16 songs from 4 best guitarists in YU rock of mid 70's,RM Tocak's first album,Suncokret's "Moje bube" and several used lp's(Smak,Boomerang,Time).Best new(at least to my ears)artist I found interesting was Biljana Krstic(formerly of Suncokret&Rani Mraz)with her band Bistrik Orchestra,playing kind of  folk w/mild prog influences mostly in instrumentation.It's probably a strech,but I will call it Balkan version of Dead Can Dance.Maybe somebody would consider adding them to the YU-prog list roster.Seyo,what do you think?Anyway,keep on proggin' Weirdamigo and good luck.Regards from Canada.

Edited by Weirdamigo - August 19 2010 at 15:08

Seyo wrote: ljubaspriest wrote: Great job so far, Weirdamigo.Let the proggers all over the world hear some of the goods produced in our beloved Yugoslavia during golden times.I was visiting Bosnia&Serbia this past may and was deeply disappointed by state of musical affairs over there.Amount of "neo-turbo-folk" content on radio and TV stations is morbidly inadequate.I had hard time finding any quality(not pirate)cd's in Bosnia.Belgrade(Serbia)offered  little more,so I scored "Kongres rock majstora"(finally on cd),a great compilation of 16 songs from 4 best guitarists in YU rock of mid 70's,RM Tocak's first album,Suncokret's "Moje bube" and several used lp's(Smak,Boomerang,Time).Best new(at least to my ears)artist I found interesting was Biljana Krstic(formerly of Suncokret&Rani Mraz)with her band Bistrik Orchestra,playing kind of  folk w/mild prog influences mostly in instrumentation.It's probably a strech,but I will call it Balkan version of Dead Can Dance.Maybe somebody would consider adding them to the YU-prog list roster.Seyo,what do you think?Anyway,keep on proggin' Weirdamigo and good luck.Regards from Canada. Ljubas, I have not heard Bilja Krstić yet. My interest generally stops at 1990 (and it is practical to define some boundaries for the research purposes) and I only occassionally follow what is happening in the successor Yugoslav states. There are some good things to be sure (Darkwood Dub is alredy mentioned) but I don't find anything as challenging for my ears as some oldies. It is not only "turbo-folk" but the general trend is awful everywhere I am afraid.

Well,maybe you should reconsider expanding your interest little further ahead of 1990,'cause rare acts like above mentioned Bilja Krstic&Bistrik Orchestra deserve more attention in the light of appaling state of popular music all over frmr.YU.But,then again,I agree to certain extent with your point knowing that with cesation of Yugoslavia almost all quality art forms went to sh*ts,pardon my french.In any case,I can warmly recommend Bilja's cd w/two for one on one cd,knowing about your publicly declared  love for DCD,I'm sure you will enjoyed it.

One more thing,before I forget(I'm 53,getting senile).Found a used cd from a band called FIRE "Could you understand?" on a South-African(?)label Skyf Zol.I heard of them before,album of theirs is one of the rarest lp's around collectors circles.Apparently they hailed from Croatia(ex YU) and members are:Jura Havidic,Miljenko Balic and Emil Vugrinec,and they played psychedelic hard rock with some killer fuzzed-out guitar leads,stuff everybody call "stoner-rock" nowadays.Well worth investigating.