Kalemegdan Disk - ROCK FROM EASTERN EUROPE

Croatia Records Release Information

“Modra rijeka” (Blue River) by the legendary Indexi on 180 gram vinyl, half-speed mastered at the Abbey Road Studios London

Ima jedna modra rijeka
Ima jedna modra rijeka –
Valja nama preko rijeke

There is one blue river
There is one blue river –
It’s up to us across the river

...that’s how the lines of the opening “Modra rijeka” end, recited by the legend of the Yugoslavian theater, Fabijan Šovagović, which opens the discography masterpiece called “Modra rijeka” – the most brilliant moment of the legendary Indexi from Sarajevo. It is a conceptual album created around the poetry of one of the greatest Yugoslavian poets, Mako Dizdar. This masterful piece, originally published in 1978, can stand alongside the world’s greatest releases of progressive rock music without any hesitation.

Slobodan A. Kovačević, Fadil Redžić, Davorin Popović, Ranko Rihtman, Đorđe Kisić, Nenad Jurin and Tihomir Pop Asanović recorded in 1978 at Zagreb’s Jugoton. The sound engineer was Mladen Rukavec, the assistant/technician was Branko Podbrežnički, and the mix was done by the engineer Ulrich Ulmann at the studio Barbarossa in Munich. “Modra rijeka” was immediately known to be the best and most important work of Indexi, that is, something for which this group will be remembered the most. Not only to remember, but to leave a truly unforgettable mark that has long gone into eternity.

“Modra rijeka”, therefore, cannot be surpassed, but like the world’s biggest groups, they deserve the most important points in music encyclopedias and special care in further reissues. To date, the album has been reissued twice on CD (in 1995 by Croatia Records and in 1999 by Naraton), and now for the first time on 180 gram vinyl. A high-quality half speed master was digitally transferred from the analog stereo tapes originally produced in Zagreb and Munich in 1978 using a special cutting method at Abbey Road Studio in London. The high resolution digital transfer was done by Goran Martinac from the Croatia Records Studio, and the half speed master by Miles Showell from the Abbey Road Studios. The producer of this project is Nikola Alexander Borota, and the supervisor is the director of Croatia Records, Želimir Babogredac. The great artistic design of the reissue, along with the restoration of the original cover by Dragan S. Stefanović, where there is a woven work by one of the world’s greatest graphic artists and painters, Mersad Berber, is signed by Darko Kujundžić.

This discographic undertaking is the greatest tribute to “Modra rijeka”, which consists of eight tributaries, i.e. chapters through which incredible compositions pass, gentle and melodic, but also progressive and long-playing, ending in the form of the instrumental “More II” with which we are we are sailing the sound waves through the eternal “Blue River”.

Full album: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kz4SlvjhZGIlzZ5ToGOXt68vwMi6ABtII

Tracklist

Side A

1. Modra rijeka 1:03
2. Blago 4:14
3. Brod 5:08
4. More 11:29

Side B

1. Zapis o zemlji 0:38
2. Slovo o čovjeku 6:01
3. Pustinja 4:40
4. More II 4:27
5. Modra rijeka 6:56