Does folk music have to be authentic? Serbian singer Svetlana Spajic has dedicated her life to reappropriating the old. Not only has she earned a reputation as a modern master of traditional microtonal singing techniques Since the mid-90s. Spajic also has a rare feel for lived experiences. » I was never told by my teachers, ›You sing well…‹ Such [a] thing doesn’t exist in the ancient epic world. Either you testify to the truth or not,« she once stated. But this truth is anything but traditional. »Gordan«, her eponymous band’s Glitterbeat debut, is abrasive Noise, full of distorted bass drones and hissing feedback loops. Percussionist Andi Stecher contributes hypnotic mid-tempo rhythms. Yet, Spajic’s commanding vocals are front and center in the mix. She makes no concessions to the present (at least none that the uninitiated could notice). With the iron face of a village headwoman, she laments deaths by avalanche fatalities, fratricides, and wars in the border region of the Habsburg Empire. We are in the middle of the pre-modern era – until Spajic sings the praises of Nikola Tesla. On »Gordan«, time and, with it, the genres become blurred. Sometimes the trio is playful like Širom, sometimes broken like Lankum, sometimes fascinated by militarism like Laibach. Not everyone will take Gordan‘s repetitive, non-linear songwriting to heart. But those who do will be confronted with a truth. The old world is lost and the new one has yet to arrive.
Gordan
