Svod: Traditional Songs from Serbia and the Balkans

ARC Music is developing into one of the foremost record labels releasing new Balkan recordings – having issued excellent efforts by Serbian Roma rockers Kal, Bosnian sevdah band Divanhana and Macedonia's Dzambo Agusevi Orchestra brass band. It's off to a solid start in 2017 with Serbian vocalist Bilja Krstic's album. Krstić is a well-established vocalist in Belgrade, having sung pop before turning to folk music: this, her fifth album (but first to win a UK release) finds her tackling ten songs from across the former Yugoslavia. Throughout she's backed by a versatile six-piece band and two backing vocalists – pianist Dragomir Stanojević arranges and keeps things suitably lush. There is a tendency here to take the melodrama of sevdah into Barbara Streisand territory: big piano chords, reverb on all instruments, and more of a sense of drama than emotion being conveyed. Balkan easy listening, perhaps? For the audience who like this kind of music – nostalgic for the golden Tito era when these songs were performed often – this surely works well. I just wish Krstić and band would strip the pathos back and rock like they were playing a kafana tavern.