Gordan
Gordan
GERMANY GLITTERBEAT RECORDS GBCD155 C.D. (2024)
This eponymous follow-up to 2021’s “Down in the Meadow” (Morphine Records), finds this trans-European trio’s further explorations into a space where age-steeped Balkan vocalese fuses with electronic ambience, sinuous bass pulse and a lattice-work of Can-like hypno-percussives. After that debut received the critical hosanna, the unveiling of the second album reveals a somewhat more radical shift, with eight pieces that are more fluid and situated a good country mile from certain ‘box standard’ frameworks. Beginning with an endorsement of a Bohemian lifestyle, the rhythmically imposing “Barabinska” is one of over half of the set that leans heavily on native-tongued trad. verse (sourced from the western Balkans, to be precise). “Selo Moje” is however, penned by Gordan vocalist extraordinaire Svetlana Spajić (collabs w/ Zeitkratzer, William Basinski a.o.) and then radically reshaped by bassist Guido Mobius (also found on the Dekorder and Karaoke Kalk labels) and drummer Andi Stecher (Matana Roberts, Carla Bozulich).
The single, “The Bell is Buzzing”, is a well-travelled Balkan love song which begins in some versions, as an everyday tale of a young shepherd’s betrayal at the hands of his sweetheart, who then rejects him for another. In this take though, things surprisingly end in a happy-ever-after fashion, which surely goes against accepted folk norms. So, I guess from a capsule version of ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ to the closing “O Nikola”; a detailed tribute to the Serbian scientific genius Nikolai Tesla’ written by Bosnian singer Milan Bilbija. I always thought that poet Herb Bermann’s lyric for Captain Beefheart’s “Electricity” could serve as a makeshift anthem to this man born out of time, especially with the “…thunderbolts caught easily…” line. But now, we’ve got the real thing and this compelling slice of near-sprechgesang is undoubtedly the cherry on the icing and one that prods the listener into a further bout of bookworming.
Casting the runes in a digital age, Gordan can be seen as successfully grabbing the baton from mystical prog/folk worthies such as first album Comus, first album Mr. Fox, The Third Ear Band and Germany’s I.S.B. Counterparts: Flute & Voice.