Kalemegdan Disk - ROCK FROM EASTERN EUROPE

Tracklist

Side A

1. Ni ti, ni ja 3:22
2. Pamtim samo sretne dane 3:54
3. Ako priđeš bliže (zagrli me) 4:11
4. Moderato cantabile 3:45
5. Imenom sam tvojim zvao 4:12
6. Zagreb i ja se volimo tajno 4:11

Side B

1. Proljeće bez tebe 4:36
2. Kuća pored mora 3:35
3. Tko stoji iza mene 3:20
4. Takvim sjajem može sjati 4:02
5. Otkako te ne volim 3:08
6. Završit ću kao Howard Hughes 3:52

Full album at YouTube

Croatia Records Release Information

After the recent release of the CD “Zoran pjeva Arsena” (Zoran sings Arsen), the famous Slovenian singer-songwriter Zoran Predin in collaboration with the Damir Kukuruzović Django Group presents the album on vinyl. He started the celebration of 40 years of successful career in January at the Croatia Records studio by recording a new studio album, at the beginning of February 2019 at ZKM he presented his new book “Glavom kroz zid” (With the Head through the Wall), and on 7 March he celebrated the big anniversary with the gala concert “Ljubavnik iz ormara” (Lover from the Closet) in Zagreb’s Lisinski.

Predin has been one of the most significant new wave singer-songwriters, who is characterized by witty and dominant authorial power, and due to the dose of originality and darkly humorous texts that he primarily wrote for the group Lačni Franz, of which he was the founder, he was often the target of the government at the time. He had a long-standing friendship with Arsen Dedić, and he felt the great author not only as a friend, but also as a mentor, older brother, his kindred poetic soul.

That is precisely why, after the great success of Matija Dedić’s album “Matija svira Arsena” (Matija Plays Arsen), the idea for the album “Zoran pjeva Arsena” was born. Predin chose twelve songs that were recorded in gypsy swing arrangements, and his long-term collaboration with Damir Kukuruzović and his Django Group enabled him to realize his idea in the best possible way.

In the new arrangements by the violinist Bruno Urlić and Zoran Predin, Arsen’s classics such as “Kuća pored mora” (House by the Sea), “Moderato cantabile” (Moderato cantabile), “Ni ti, ni ja” (Neither You, nor I), “Imenom sam tvojim zvao” (I Called by Your Name), “Pamtim samo sretne dane” were given a new style that will certainly delight Arsen’ and Zoran’s audiences alike, as well as all those who love Leonard Cohen and Vaya con Dios.
The guest on four songs is Matija Dedić, a famous pianist who gave these songs the necessary authenticity with his musical skills and with whom Predin is behind the albums “Tragovi u sjeti” (Traces in Memory) and “Tragovi u sjeti 2” (Traces in Memory 2).

“Arsen was a very funny man, a person who did not know how to lie. He openly told everyone what he was up to, so that many felt uncomfortable in his company. I am convinced that he would say about this album: “Every success of yours is a big wound in my heart, except for this album,” said Predin.

The famous music critic Zlatko Gall wrote about the new album “Zoran pjeva Arsena”: “Predin and his company do not reach for gypsy swing as a Procrustean bed on which they will land every of Arsen’s “evergreen”. Therefore, “Pamtim samo sretne dane” (I only Remember Happy Days) leans less on gypsy stylizations, but as a dreamy and muted number devoid of lavish festival orchestrations – with excellent accents of piano and guitar – it concentrates as much as possible on the most important thing: the magical melody of Arsen’s original. “Ako priđeš bliže (zagrli me)” (If You Come Closer (Hug Me)) got a swing acceleration (with unobtrusive guitar solo parts) on the trail of pop gypsy bands like Vaya con Dios, which took it to a new orbit beyond the one in which Dedić or Čolić navigated their performances.”

Even music critic Hrvoje Horvat does not hide his enthusiasm for the album: “Arsen Dedić and Zoran Predin were so close that their long-standing recognition of each other as singer-songwriters and their deep connection on the album “Zoran pjeva Arsena” created a different reading of authentic imagination and expansion than the great originals. With the musical fuel of Damir Kukuruzović and the Django Group, and the participation of Matija Dedić, “Zoran pjeva Arsena” is an essential new reading of Arsen’s songs that only someone so immersed in his own singer-songwriter work, and Arsen’s famous history, like Predin, could come up with.”