UTOPIA (Claudio Records, 2024)

Utopia is impossible - but it is necessary. We have to challenge reality with an abstract vision, because that's the only way we can truly understand it and change it accordingly. However, these abstractions are not just fantasy ideas about an ideal society where abundance and harmony reign – they are also our human values, desires and ambitions, which cannot be fully fulfilled as well. In real world, there is no such thing as an ideal human, absolute ethics or definitive desires. Yet, it is precisely these new values that outgrow the state of affairs and try to change it, these projections of abstract concepts into the chaotic real world, that are an indicator of our human condition and our capacity to manage the development of society with the power of our own will.

DANCING MACHINE (Claudio Records, 2020)

Once the cold code has established universal order and all questions have disappeared, we may break away and step out of line. We may take a deep breath. What we will see are the ever-changing contours of freedom. Our precious illusions. Our appealing flaws. Our ignorance that creates wonders. Wherever one looks, there are new territories. The wild landscape where everything is possible and where is no day or night.

 

 

LIGHTNING (Claudio Records, 2013)

LIGHTNING is not just a natural phenomena - it is a social one as well. It shows us most clearly how things work, and that is by principle of force. Not by consensus but by mere power. We see sparks everywhere: from atoms, microscopic sparks in synapses in our brain to social unrests and revolution. Is lightning a fight between the opposites, or rather a bridge between the two? Forces derived from differences drive a perpetual cycle of building and destruction, destruction and building. Are we just its fertilizer or can we controll our destructiveness? Can we command the lightning? How far can we go with our will?

VALSE BRUTAL (KUD France Preseren, 2009)

When a journalist, who had spent most of his career reporting from war time zones, was asked what his major experience from these places was, he answered it was getting rid of a big illusion. He has always travelled to his destinations with an indistinct notion that the situation would soon improve, that it was only a matter of time before the belligerent parties would realize the nonsensicality of their actions, or that everything must have been a consequence of a terrible misunderstanding... On the contrary. What he found out was that people simply don't want to stop the violence. Indeed - violence and wars were nothing but the everyday matters, like going to the grocery store or paying electricity bills.

Album SACRE DU TEMPS (Claudio Records, 2013) contains music for the dance performance choreographed by Edward Clug. Album has been originally released by Station Zuid in 2007. This is probably the most daring, energetic and sparkling performance by Clug so far. It's impossible to think of a phenomena more all-embracing then time itself, and at the same time so incomprehensible and uncatchable. Along the same line, dance and music are covering the same broad and slippery field, where time appears different with regard to who experiences it and what are all other events and circumstances that accompany it.

This is music for the film A LIFE IN SUITCASES directed by Peter Greenaway (Claudio Records, 2013, originally released by First Name Soundtracks, 2005). The album also covers the music for three other films which constitute The Tulse Luper Suitcases trilogy: The Moab Story (2003), Vaux to the See (2004) and From Sark to Finish (2005). They were screened at film festivals in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, Tribeca, Hong Kong etc.

 

STORIES FROM MAGATREA (Claudio Records, 2014, originally released by Falcata-Galia Recordings, US, in 1997). This work, like his former records, once again surprises us with its evocative pictures, ludistic power and erudite humour. The stories do not relate to any particular event, but refer to the work of Douglas Adams and his description of the most prosperous industry in the history of the mankind - production of whole planets to order. This giant industry has its headquarters on the planet Magatrea and it is run by engineers od human wishes. The stories, of course, take place wherever and whenever. They tell us about the interconnectedness of everyday events and illusiions, of God's mysterious ways, of different beliefs and similar wishes.

The second album, LA DOLCE VITA (FV, Ljubljana / Discordia, Willich, 1995), further radicalized the original objective. He concieved it and recorded it with DATA DIRECT, a group that unites Slovene, Italian and Yugoslav musicians, some of which already appeared on the album "Currents of Time". The musicians of DATA DIRECT stem from various musical areas: symphonic orchestra, ethereal folk music of the Balkans, techno, improvised muisic, "avant-garde rock"... Such surprising mixture of different approaches produces new meanings, fusing alternating musical relationships into intriguing and amply structured compositions.

Or as it says on the album cover: "The most thrilling thing is to discover and rediscover the shape and structure of chaos." 

Album CURRENTS OF TIME (Recommended Records, London, 1991; re-release: Tone Casualties, Hollywood, 1998, Claudio Records, 2012), set the foundation of his characteristic style. It features many musicians who found the common ground in exploration of uncharted territories of contemporary eclectic music and surpassing any precise definition of genre. Liberated from the narrow confines of a specific methodology, and using a great variety of instruments and sensibilities, he is able to stress the diverse aspects of music and take us to strong, almost visual expierences.