Kalemegdan Disk deutsch

Since 1991 Kalemegdan Disk has been a mailorder service and distribution specialized in East European rock music. Kalemegdan Disk has been offering a worldwide unique assortment of about 3000-4000 East European items (records, CDs, some DVDs and very few books) containing also Jazz, Folk, Wave, Pop, Avant-garde and some other styles. This assortment mainly consists of new CDs and LPs with recordings from the 60s until today, and a second-hand LPs and singles section from the 60s up to the moment when the record industry in Eastern Europe switched to the manufacturing of CDs.

New CDs & LPs

During the last years Kalemegdan Disk has been directly co-operating with almost all important Yugoslavian, Hungarian, Czechoslovakian, Polish and East German record companies offering attractive material from the Socialist period of their countries. I have visited their headquarters mainly in Belgrade, Zagreb, Budapest, Prague, Bratislava, Warszawa, Katowice and East Berlin several times.

We have compiled about 80-90% of the currently existing interesting rock and rock related releases recorded in the 60s, 70s and 80s in these countries to one assortment. Additionally we have been adding a growing number of well-chosen releases from the last 25 years. Together with our German main partner Green-Brain we offer this assortment to retail customers via our web shops and catalogues, at ebay, amazon, hood (all by Green-Brain) and discogs (by Kalemegdan Disk).

Distribution of new CDs & LPs

During the last years we have built up the central export warehouse for the Rock releases of the most important East European record companies here in Nuremberg and we distribute the items (about 1500 CDs and 100 LPs right now) to all kind of resellers in several countries in Europe and overseas. We have almost all items in adequate quantities in stock and our main suppliers let us regularly know their own stock figures so that we usually can assess which quantities of the items can be quickly reordered. The basic idea to start was to offer international dealers the possibility to order almost all items of their interest from that region from one source at West German quality and service standards.

For our wholesale partners we offer a wholesale catalogue as excel file including all basic data, music style, a rating about the quality of the music, tracklists and – as far as we have compiled it until now – release information. Additionally it contains our current stock figures which are updated daily and our assessment of the reordering possibilities. We have also prepared download links for all cover pictures of our assortment in good quality (usually 300 dpi) for our partners.

The Kalemegdan Disk label

The Kalemegdan Disk label was active during the nineties of the last century. In those days I had far-reaching plans to re-release the highlights of the Yugoslavian Rock history in Germany with high quality standards. Altogether, there were only five LP releases, but these received good reviews throughout the world. The last two LPs – the Tako-reissues from the master-tapes – have shown which course the label was meant to take: high-quality covers with elaborate designs and heavy 180 gram vinyl caused quite a lot of surprise among critics as well as retail and wholesale customers. Today, 180 gram vinyl might be almost standard for rock reissues based on good recordings, but at that time it was not use at all.

After the destruction of Yugoslavia and the collapse of the old Kalemegdan Disk business structures some years later I could not continue with this project, but all these years I haven’t completely buried my plans. During my visits of Eastern Europe’s record companies we have discussed this topic several times, but we haven’t decided anything until now.

Second-hand records & CDs

Second-hand records were the starting point of my business in 1986. In 1993 I ended my activities at international record fairs, sold the complete Western assortment and kept only the Yugoslavian records. Around 2000 I started to complement them with LPs from the other East European countries and that’s where I have a big part of my knowledge of from. In 2015 we still carry second-hand records and also some CDs, but this is not the main assortment anymore.

Nuremberg, 13. April 2015

Thomas Werner

Kalemegdan Discography:

LP 1991 KD 001 Igra Staklenih Perli: Soft Explosion Live / Tiha eksplozija u živo (500 copies)
LP 1993 KD 001 Igra Staklenih Perli: Soft Explosion Live / Tiha eksplozija u živo (1000 copies)
LP 1992 KD 002 Igra Staklenih Perli: Inner Flow / Unutrašnji tok (500 copies)
LP 1994 KD 002 Igra Staklenih Perli: Inner Flow / Unutrašnji tok (500 copies)
LP 1994 KD 003 Igra Staklenih Perli: Drives (1000 copies)
LP 1994 KD 004 Tako: Tako (1000 copies)
LP 1994 KD 005 Tako: U vreći za spavanje (1000 copies)

KD 001 Igra Staklenih Perli: Soft Explosion Live / Tiha eksplozija u živo

A live recording by this Belgrade Underground group from 1978 showing first class psychedelic rock music in a magic live atmosphere. 50 minutes which will lead you through unusual – and yet familiar – spheres, rhythms, melodies and sound pictures. 50 minutes which will remind you of Pink Floyd, Can, Tangerine Dream and Hawkwind and which contain almost the complete material of their first LP “Igra Staklenih Perli”. The for that time quite good recording quality is affected only by a slight rustling.

KD 002 Igra Staklenih Perli: Inner Flow / Unutrašnji tok

“Inner Flow” is a cross-section through private live-recordings out of four years Igra Staklenih Perli (1976-1979, 44 minutes) in changing recording quality with the title-track played live at a concert. Pedja and Vojkan chose this material themselves: without any commercial interests they were led only by their own taste, that means, just how they wanted to present the band to an interested public all over the world ten years after they stopped playing. And nevertheless the editor’s “okay” was just a formality…

KD 003 Igra Staklenih Perli: Drives

After four LPs with RTB and Kalemegdan Disk, “Drives” is the whole pride of the Belgrade musicians Pedja Vuković, Vojkan Rakić and Zoran Zagorčić. They checked recordings of the legendary four hours session of the 28th of April 1977 for “missing lines”, when the tape, that was lost a long time ago, finally found its misterious way back to the group. In September 1991 they recorded the definite version of “Drives”, which should become their fifth and most succeeded album – particularly in sound, production and pressing. Igra Staklenih Perli present in four parts (42 minutes) timeless “drives” through their world of psychedelic sounds. Completed by Pedja’s until now most beautiful cover and an insert that should give answers to open and unasked questions./p>

KD 004 Tako: Tako

43 minutes progressive Rock (mainly instrumental) from Yugoslavia – a reissue based on the original master-tape. During the second half of the seventies Đorđe Ilijin (keyboards, flute), Dušan Ćućuz (bas), Miroslav Dukić (guitar) and Slobodan Felekatović (drums) played the “most progressive” Rock in Belgrade and separated themselves with their uncompromising engagement for pretentious atmospheric music – like their colleagues from Igra Staklenih Perli – distinctly from the mainstream in the Yugoslavian rock scene. Their varied first LP from 1978 contains one of the best Yugoslav Rock compositions: “Druga strana mene” (The other side of me, 16 minutes).

KD 005 Tako: U vreći za spavanje

43 more minutes instrumental progressive Rock with a lot of atmosphere – a reissue based on the original master-tape with two additional tracks that Tako recorded together with the other tracks, but did not release on the original album. In 1980 the musicians, who always spent much attention to balance out their own sound, could develop their abilities in a private studio without making haste: matured ideas in form of complex sound pictures on a versed rhythmical foundation come up to the listener in a symphonic rock sound. Although the group succeeded with “U vreći za spavanje” a further development, they had to stop playing after one more year.

Since we had the master-tapes for both Tako-LPs, we decided to publish them on thick 180-gram-vinyl (which at this time was almost exclusively used for hifi-productions) to lead the seriousness of the band’s work after 13 years in an appropriate way to the end. At the studio-technical point of view “U vreći za spavanje” is the best of our five productions and regarding the quality standards of the manufacturing of LPs, covers and inner sleeves, both Tako-albums on Kalemegdan Disk are probably the most high-graded LP-productions in the whole history of East European rock music.

Erlangen, 1993 & 1994

Thomas Werner