Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: RuŽa Reda
Label: Self-released
Release: 2016
Runtime: 61:28
Rating: 4/5
RuŽa reda is a duo made up of Ruda and Žare, and the name is simply stitched together from the two of them. The poet Žarko Jovanovski, a Croatian artist and musician who has played and still plays in Elecric Žare, Geler Feler, AbnorMalan and Duo List, has put out five books of poetry to date. The other half of the duo is guitarist and composer Andrej Boštjančič Ruda, whom you might know from Zmajev rep, Črni Peter, Brencl Banda and the free jazz septet Ohoho!
The two decided to join forces in early 2015, when they met in Kumrovec, Croatia, and by the end of May that same year the live material for the album »Umik na obrambne položaje« was already in the can. What we get are Žare’s poetry recitals, picked from his rich body of work, colored by the musical, imaginative world Ruda builds from spontaneous inspiration and a whole range of feelings, in the glow of the unexpected rise of »junk« on the guitar. For a second you might think of, say, the NL3 project (Natriletno kolobarjenje s praho), but in terms of message and vibrant, energetic confession, »Umik na obrambne položaje« is of course a completely different story.
Žare is a real »language doctor« when he thunders through the verses of his poetry. He’s socially critical and engaged, there are a few ordinary tales from the everyday life of the little guy, but mostly it’s about raising a middle finger, the left hand’s one, aimed at the stupidity and delusions of the »brave new world«, which has pushed us down to a miserably humiliating level of slave-owner’s corvée while handing us the »quality« of total moral devaluation, through an acquired, washed-out one-mindedness, or let’s just call it »no-mindedness«. Gray sheep. Monotony, uniformity, obedience, fear, the search for the safety Big Brother offers. The hermetic rigidity the system has to stand on. Little people who »slaughter« each other for a handful of coins. Bootlickers. Benders. Ever since man »invented« private property, the system has been dragging mostly the negative traits out of us, even though we have good ones too. Unwittingly, unintentionally. Only the strongest in soul and heart can stand up to it and hold on to the core of their own identity, the mission laid in the cradle, so that through it they mature spiritually and emotionally healthy and stay good people. All of this and more is laid bare by the eccentric preaching of Žarko, passionately lived-through and brimming with lavish emotion, an unbridled storyteller stringing together the brutally down-to-earth realism of our bitter reality.
In fact, Žare is the center of attention in this story. Ruda is still a welcome presence, coloring the available space with »slammed-out« excesses of in-the-moment guitar inspiration and magnifying the confessional theater of Žare’s poetry. Whether it’s just annoying scraping in the background, tightening and loosening the tuning pegs, tapping on the wood of the instrument, etc…. we’re of course also exposed all along to a series of »grimacing« free jazz figures in a run of shot-off chords that Ruda slips in behind Žarko’s poetry.
Ruda and Žare clicked beautifully, but the record demands a pretty thick skin to take in. It’s no easy bite and calls for finesse, attentiveness, your full commitment. An open heart. Only then will it truly reward you richly with what it has to say. If you’re a gourmet drawn to rich, expressive language caught in verses of poetry that are dark, cruel and at the same time wickedly sparkling in the way they mock the injustices we’ve been thrown into, this record is tailor-made for you. But keep in mind that the poetry is delivered in Croatian. So you first have to understand the language, and only then give yourself over unconditionally to this fascinating record. If nothing else, it will shake you to the core, wake you up and rattle you. And that’s exactly what it’s about.
And one more thing matters. Given the nonsense that politics deliberately and artificially manufactures, drawing ever deeper barriers between two nations and countries along the Kolpa river, this record is proof that art knows no limits and works in the opposite direction. What counts for it is truthfulness, honesty. Morals, backbone, ethics. Only that matters. And that also means art tolerates and accepts every kind of difference. In an eternally conciliatory and tolerant light. Those are values that, in these new times of absolute depravity, are once again fully relevant and that we urgently have to (re)think and become aware of, or we won’t last long. In that sense the value of this record is all the greater and carries extra weight.
RuŽa reda – Recept za sreću (official live video, 30.05.2015, Salon za ENO glasbo, Ljubljana):
Lineup
Žarko Jovanovski – recitals
Andrej Boštjančič “Ruda” – guitar
Production
Klemen Bračko & Janez Križaj
Track list
1. Odstop
2. Iskalna akcija
3. Koljem po hišah
4. Fašisti iz porcelana
5. Marširamo po ulicah
6. Država
7. Nekoč je bila država, ki se je hotela imenovati medved
8. Sol
9. Ugašam
10. Tranzicija
11. Spomin na Nemčijo 1996
12. Črne luknje
13. Oni imajo
14. Hrvaška
15. Recept ua srečo
16. Turopolje
17. Lidija
18. Petek popoldne
19. Maribor
20. Amerika
21. Nimam več časa
22. Akcija!
