Tamo gori – Album Description
Tamo gori is Dunja Knebl & Kololira’s third album (Dunja’s twentieth album), released May 15th, 2020 on Bandcamp by Geenger Records. The title has two different meanings: “Up There” or “There’s a Fire Burning Over There”.
The album’s “story” was inspired by the Italian saying “Tutto il mondo è un paese” („The whole world is a single village. “, or „People will be people the whole world over”). That was two years ago when the band began working on the album, and today it corresponds with the pandemic situation when we are all “in the same pot”.
Eleven songs from different countries in different languages tell the story of man’s eternal struggle to find happiness and love, a journey from darkness to light. The obstacles in his way are most often the ones he creates himself (wars of all kinds, deceit, lies, self-destruction…). There is hope if we ourselves are the light. Even though the songs are old traditional folk songs from different countries (England, Ukraine, Russia, USA, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), they are universal and timeless in describing human nature.
Songs
1.Za škrlakom cimer – (Međimurje/Croatia) A young girl is seeing off her lover who is forced to join the army.
2.Chorna rillya – (Ukraine, 16th century Cossak song) One of the most powerful and horrific descriptions of war – a raven feeding on the remains of an unburied soldier could just as well be anywhere in the world today.
3.High Barbaree – (England, 17th century) Man shows no mercy towards the enemy, even though he can.
4.Se po tihoj nočki spi – (Međimurje/Croatia) Deceit and lies are obstacles to true love.
5.Oy dedushka – (Russia) A grandfather forbids his granddaughter to go out for a stroll. Perhaps she could have found love…
6.Peter Gray – (USA) Traditional American ballad telling the tragic story about a father not allowing his daughter to marry the man she loves.
7.Naša mat – (Burgenland/Austria) A young girl is struggling for independence, not wanting to follow blindly her mother’s or her sweetheart’s wishes.
8.Tobacco’s but an Indian Weed – (England, 17th century) Besides killing each other, we sometimes have the need for self-destruction. Regardless of our choices the end is the same for all…
9.Hasanaga jesam li ti draga – (Bosnia and Herzegovina) A beautiful love song about a woman who is determined to make her loved one confess his love for her. She succeeds.
10.Sveča dogorijeva – (Hrvatsko zagorje/Croatia) The servant is rewarded for his loyalty to the dying master – he can choose which of the master’s daughters he wishes to marry.
11.Fijolica moja – (Hrvatsko primorje/Croatia) – „Your heart and my heart are tied together by true love “.
Album Credits
All the songs are traditional (lyrics, music), in the public domain.
Arrangements: Dunja Knebl, Danijel Maoduš, Hrvoje Ban, Hrvoje Sudar, Roko Margeta
Dunja Knebl : voice (1-11), guitar (8)
Danijel Maoduš: acoustic guitar (1-11), voice (4,6,8,9)
Hrvoje Ban: accordion (1,2,3,6,7,8,10,11), cajon (4), alto recorder (5), frame drum (9), voice (4,6,8,9)
Hrvoje Sudar: fiddle (1,3,4,6,7,8,10,11), bouzouki ((5,9), frame drum (2), voice (4,6,8,9)
Roko Margeta: frame drum (1,3,6,8), Indian harmonium (3,4,11), bamboo flute (2,7,10), tapan (2,5,6,7,9), percussion (2,5,8,9), ney (3,9), tin whistle (3), ukulele (5), rainstick (5), reed flute (5), washboard (6), shakuhachi (8), voice (4,6,8,9)
Audio recorded, mixed and mastered by Dinko Čvorić Doringo at Slamasonik Studio, Zagreb, Croatia from November 2018 till March 2020
Music Production: Doringo, Dunja Knebl & Kololira
Cover design, collage: Biljana Knebl
Bandcamp: https://dunjaknebl.bandcamp.com/album/tamo-gori