Bura

Raphael Rogiński’s latest is a collaboration with Ružičnjak Tajni, his new group of Serbian musicians, including Tijana Golubović (violin) and Marina Džukljev (piano). The music is both serene and ancient, with Svetlana Spajić’s timeless vocals weaving tales in microtonality over rumbling strings on tracks like ‘Suze, suze’ before unfurling into moments of harmony on ‘Ada Kaleh’, a moment all the more poignant when counterpointed with the relative dissonance of the rest of the album.

The build from ‘Što duže gledaš, više lepote vidiš’ all the way into the opening of ‘Ada Kaleh’ sounds like the sky clearing after a storm. The title Bura refers to the North Balkan wind, and it’s an appropriate name for this elemental music which holds empty air and space between the instruments, and invites us into the unknown. Woods creak throughout the album, as if each musician were a tree, powerless to the winds bending them.