Zagreb prog-indie-rock trio ŽEN have dropped a video for Zgrade, the song that closes out their latest studio album Ciklus (Moonlee Records, 2024) with a bang, and neatly wraps up everything they’ve done so far too.
When a band’s been around long enough, we stop looking at it just through its discography, the miles of touring and the gig dates. We start seeing it as a building that slowly soaks up everything that’s happened inside it – the noise, the cracks, the weight, the vibrations, the people coming and going.
In Zgrade, the members of ŽEN use the metaphor of architecture to tell the story of their long musical journey – about perseverance and standing up to burnout, about stability that doesn’t rule out damage, about time that leaves its marks but doesn’t bring the structure down. The buildings in this song aren’t just physical objects but living memory banks; places that remember lives, changes, cracks and survival.
The video takes a similar poetic approach, courtesy of young cinematographer and director Paola Lada Franulović, who turns the city’s facades into living protagonists of the story. The camera doesn’t watch the buildings as static objects but up close and personal – as bodies that breathe. Windows, balconies, walls, antennas and worn-out facades become carriers of emotion and endurance, while everyday urban landscapes shake off their stillness and slip into an almost organic rhythm.
Another cool detail about the video: its main stars are the buildings of Zagreb’s Trešnjevka – the neighborhood that’s home to plenty of Zagreb artists, including the members of ŽEN.
The video lands right before ŽEN’s gig at Park Stara Trešnjevka in Zagreb on May 17, 2026, as part of the Trešnja Trešti program. In the context of the song and the video, a show in the very heart of the neighborhood feels like a natural next chapter – bringing the music back to the place it came from.
Besides that show, ŽEN will also open for English band Idles in Belgrade, and hit plenty of summer festivals, with the set at Nindri Indri in Murska Sobota standing out for us.
Upcoming ŽEN shows:
17.5.2026 @ Zagreb, Park Stara Trešnjevka (HR)
26.6.2026 @ Belgrade, New Tekstil (RS)
2.-5.7.2026 @ Slunj, Bearstone Festival (HR)
16.8.2026 @ Vienna, KulturSommer (AT)
22.8.2026 @ Murska Sobota, Nindri Indri (SI)
