Music for a feature film EVEN PIGS GO TO HEAVEN, 2022

Director: Goran Dukic

Production: Svenk

69. Pula film festival -

THE GOLDEN DOORS OF PULA - audience award

GOLDEN ARENA FOR BEST SUPPORTING MALE ROLE - Ljubo Zecevic

 

 

- one of the most charming Croatian films in the last ten years...The authors do not even try to hide that it is a tribute to the piglet Babe, even though Beba the pig is an original, unique character, and the great music of the Cinkusi band also contributes to the singular atmosphere of the Hrvatsko Zagorje region.

 
 
 

...Spiced up with emotions, decorated with cutesy animation and dressed as a period piece, detailed in terms of music and sound design, this film is certainly a demanding production that manages to keep the local taste while telling a universally understandable story....while the soundtrack consisting of jazzed- or rocked-up traditional songs (and those newly written that sound traditional) by the band Cinkusi is absolutely fitting. It seems that Even Pigs Go to Heaven was a meaningful project for all involved and that Dukic, who can certainly make a cute, feel-good yet extravagant film, also had a good time directing it.

 

Music for animated film THE RAFT, 2021

Director: Marko Mestrovic

Production: Kreativni sindikat

Croatian Society of Film Critics - award OKTAVIJAN for the best animated film in 2021

...The Raft is not a story about musicians, but a creation that expresses, through a moderately dark humour, what is written in its announcement/accompanying synopsis: "If a global disaster is a certain mental state, then music is a raft." Of course, it is uncertain whether, after seeing the film, someone would say that exact sentence. However, after watching The Raft, it is easy to agree that it is not, as is often the case, a demagogic hook that has us read thoughts and meanings into the work that are not there, but that it truly corresponds to what is presented by the film.

 
 
 

"First Prize in the Grandtoon category is awarded to Marko Mestrovic’s film The Raft because of its energy, because of his use of mixed techniques in a beautiful and meaningful way. The music is so intertwined with the storytelling that we wanted to eat psychedelic mushrooms and experience the apocalypse with the help of music. So let's not drown, let's not float, let's swim rhythmically to the sound of the raft... because maybe that's exactly what we want," reads the explanation of the jury, whose members were Alexis Hunot, Lucija Buzancic and Zarko Ivanov.

 

CD KRAVA NA OREHU

Croatia records 2017.

Cinkusi - a band which blends the medieval figure of Petrica Kerempuh to the musical anarchism of the New Wave

Cinkuši as a band present for twenty years have been joyfully and carelessly marking their musical expression from the Kaikavian traditional songs to immense pages dedicated to punk, including traditionalism back to music anarchy.They have been following this choice of words which were self imposed at the beginning of their career thus showing their position and attitude were too much valuable not to be avoided.They simply defy definitions and therefore they are not the easiest topic for writing nor a rewarding subject to be discussed. They are just here to be listened.

 
 
 

CINKUSI ‘KRAVA NA OREHU’ (CROATIA RECORDS): An amazing energy album

„Krava na orehu" ('A Cow On A Walnut Tree') is the best album in their career and the essence of their music shown in the arrangement, music expression, energy and the choice of traditional and copyright songs. All together it is awfully devilish, honest and original. This album has hit top five album charts in 2017 .

 
 
 

'A Cow On A Walnut Tree' - Cinkusi come as a Haustor extension in the early stage of play with Zagorje-Speaking idioms

For a certain period of time Cinkusi were perceived to be a strange band on Croatian music scene, even when their debut album „Zeleni kader" (1999) came out. However, the album „Domesticus Vulgaris", released in 2005, and „Spiritus Sanctus“ (2009) made them into one of the most individual bands which efficiently and effectively combines music elements of the northern regions in Croatia called Zagorje, Prigorje and Medimurje together with the typical sound of folk – rock and Celtic – punk, which is well known to people of Anglo – American territory.

 
 
 

Cinkusi - 'Krava na orehu'

They have always been cool since they have always received high marks in reviews . Their most prominent trait is their unpredictability . Cinkuši have the ability to adapt their musical score to the current situation .

 
 
 

Cinkusi 'Krava na orehu' /'A Cow On A Walnut Tree' - again under the gallows

Both sound and quality of the album " Krava na orehu " ( 'A Cow On A Walnut Tree' ) continues the great work of Cinkuši so they remain a unique appearance on the local music scene and are musicians who together with the famous medieval trobadour have been postponing its gallows act for nearly two decades.

 

2 CD/DVD CINKUSI - UZIVANCIJA!

Croatia Records 2011.

Vip.music Album of the day: Cinkusi - Uzivancija!
grade: 5

All my life, since i've been serching for myself in the mazes of music as a more active listener, i've been trying to justify situations in which there is a music that you don't need to write about. You don't have to explain it, filter it or try to bring it closer to listeners because it's elusive.
I'm trying to remember if there is a need to write reviews of albums that are summed up in one word. Whose essence is their title. Their programme. Their first word. Fullstop. And three exclamation marks at the end!!!

And every now and then something like that happenes, but as a rule, very rarely. Rarely than rarely. And then, just like it happened with the fenomenal «Zeleni Kader» with which they ended the last century, the first studio album of the same band, the bell rings yet again. When Cinkusi say «Uzivancija» (Enjoyment) only fools would not belive them. And this time it's about their debut. Live. About the double audio CD and a DVD of a koncert held on May 12th 2010. in Teatar &TD in Zagreb. They were visualized by proven and reliable video expert Darko Drinovac, but this is not a concert with a «best of career» point of view nor a concert that summs up world music tunes from their three studio albums. It's all about enjoyment. Presence.

Instead of superlatives and hyperbolas about this long term delivery of this live recording, I'll transfer the impression i caught at one of theCinkusi concert. I've been to a lot of their pleasurable concerts with the biggest smile on my face, witnessing their first barefoot steps on the stage. Therefore, under the nonlaboratory circumstances in which your sirit is open for different musical genres and don't mind their their style determination as ethno or world music freak, there's not a per mille of chance in theory you wold not be astonished with an incredible ammount of positive energy, overwhelming enthusiasm, love of playing, enjoyment in the act of playing itself. Their teathrological tendencies on stage, that soundtrack of a thetre play in which the characters are themselves. Something on the trail of "Stop Making Sense" incorrelation between Byrne's Talking Heads and Jonathan Demme. Something along the lines of the wildest phaze of Mano Negra and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. That concert madness when the band is, after a few beats, soaking wet with sweat and tha main reason is not a lousy air conditioning. Whan they are accompanying Teta Liza and when they invite this living legend as theis guest on their occasional concert.

I was standing near the firs row. Girls and boys on both sides were watching Mirko, Nebojsa and Natasa as their were coming, without a lot of positioning. They would nod, look at each other and then throw everything they got to the audience. And that exchange that everybody talks about and sells stories about happenes. Cinkusi have nothing to sell 'cause they give it all away for free. They give it selflessly. People beside me spontaniously started to take of their shoes throwing them in the air, the continued dancing untill the last second, spilled beer, drop of sweat. At the end, with cruched feet and blisters on them they had that satisfied smile they couldn't hide inspite of their wounded soles.

When i asked them how it was, they said – Enjoyment.

Don't wait a second. Cinkusi are just that. One of the rarest and last of the homemade bands with which every moment is just that – enjoyment.

 

Angelo Jurkas ,Vip.music, 20.10.2011.

 
 

Album: Uzivancija! – Live in Teatar &td – Zagreb 12/05/2010 (Croatia Records
 2 CD/DVD)
Grade: ****

 Cinkusi finally published an album that can bring closer and conjure up the atmosphere of their concert for the audience that has never heard the live. Ethno company from Zagorje, that succesfully maintaines «kajkavian» native musical (and poetical) statement and «marries» it with contemporary music influences, even untill now managed to keep an enviable level of quality with their studio albums, succeding in, without any mistakes, merging the tradition and their original contribution.

Just like Gustafi, that merged the traditional Istrian music with their own original material into a marvelous mixture of boastful freak-folk in which they interwine the influences od «Triestinian» song, tex-mex and Manu Chao, Cinkusi succesfully use the products of this new age and the freak-folk, in their own revisions of heritage sounds.

 “Grad se beli”, the first number on this koncert-album is first for a reason – it's a represetnative letter of intention and a marvelous example of «translating» a traditional song into an explosive piece of punk freak-folk. More than 105 minutes of musical wild party that this double CD (and a DVD) offers, are an authentical soundtrack of Cinkusi performance and their best release so far.

Listing all the highlights of this album would be a fruitless job – not only because there were to many but because this material of even quality doesn't allow the emphesis of only some highlights. However, by personal judgment, the extraordinary moments of the koncert/album wold be the brilliant «Ciganjska» (than united the music of Cinkusi and the lyrics of Miroslav Krleza), hilarious “Jankic” with his amazing quote of base line from «Walk on the wild side», “Navigare necesse est” – with it's Cakavian dialect of Josko Bozanic form Island Komiza set to music, brilliant ballad “Kak je Stef videl Majku bozju”, freak-folk tradicional “Huja brija” and marvelous final song (or song to go) “U divljaka luk i strijela” that connects the agitprop hymn and country bluegrass.

 

ZLATKO GALL , Slobodna Dalmacija,17.09.2011.

CD SPIRITUS SANCTUS 2009.

Croatia Records & Croatian Roots Music

 

 

WINE, ZAGORJE, KRLEZA AND GIBSON

A colorful band singing in a specific kajkavian dialect from the hills surrounding Zagreb with an album about alcohol and death

ZAGREB – Wine and music go hand in hand since the beginning of time. In the case of Cinkusi, the Croatian answer to the Pogues, there may even be a code that prevents this colorful band from drinking water.

The odd man out

Though it may not be too healthy, it is difficult to deny that Cinkusi, with their third album Spiritus Sanctus running on alcohol fumes, proved themselves to be one of the most intriguing bands in Croatia. Rock, punk and electric guitar have been carefully woven into the chants of the Croatian regions of Prigorje, Zagorje, Medimurje and kajkavian dialect that can, unfortunately, be heard less and less in Croatia, including the spirit of Krleza's Balads of Petrica Kepempuh, tamburitza and violin. If they seemed like “the odd man out” of the Croatian musical scene until a couple years back, Cinkusi are now seen as an original Croatian part of the international folk-punk and folk-rock scene.

Aunt Liza and B.P. on old age

The most well rounded and well produced conceptual album of the band Cinkusi consists of two types of songs. Those that you can cheerfully drink to with your mates and those you drink to sad and alone. The cheerful antirecession song Medo (Bear), the “fast and furious” Huja Brija and Bela are potential concert favorites. Dolinom se setala (She walked through the valley) in this arrangement could also be a big hit, just like Mala Cici of the band Zadruga. However, the calmer songs of Cinkusi are even more impressive.

The first song of the album Bratec kosi with its dark and ominous violin that announces a possible incest, the sad Picek (Chicken) and the melancholic instrumental Kak je Stef videl majku bozju (How Stef saw Mother of God) are just an introduction into the three wonderful songs that conclude the album. The unexpected island theme Navigare Necesse Est is stronger than any song we have recently heard from Dalmatia. The sorrow of Sedi si kraj mene (Sit next to me), a beautiful songs about old age with Aunt Liza and Bosko Petrovic, is as heavy as lead.

Fragrant Pinot Noir

The final song on the album Nenadejano bogcije zvelicenje continues from a slow start into a frenetic crescendo as Krleza's verses flow. Although some complaints could be made about the vocal interpretation of some parts of the songs, Spiritus Sanctus as an album about alcohol and death tastes like a fragrant Pinot Noir in comparison to vinegar thanks to an imaginative blend of folk and rock in this weak scene where folk has some entirely different connotations.

 

Aleksandar Dragas , JUTARNJI LIST

 

 

CONTEMPORARY GUARDIANS OF CROATIAN MUSICAL TRADITION

When you listen to the lyrics: »Zdigel je casu. Spustil je nebo. Videl ju je zato kaj ima cisto srce« (He raised the glass. He lowered the sky. He saw her because his heart was pure.) from the song Kak je Stef videl Majku Bozju (How Stef saw the Mother of God) from the third album of the Croatian world music band Cinkusi, it is clear that this is something out of the ordinary, something different and definitely something that the Croatian music scene is still missing.

Even the album's title cannot be avoided, just like the Cinkusi are unavoidable whenever we speak of world music, contemporary music merged with and often fully inspired by traditional chants, melodies ad folklore in general.

We should begin by saying that world music bands in Croatia are guardians of our historical treasure. Not just music, but also written word and old customs that are slowly disappearing, because they can be seen, at least partly, in the traditional songs where they are preserved.

With their new album Cinkusi have fortified their position as one of the pole bearers of the Croatian world music scene that is not particularly rich in performers. However, since the middle of the 1990's, when this six-member band was formed, they are unavoidable in every discussion about Croatian music in general.

After the albums Zeleni kader and Domesticus vulgaris, with Spiritus Sanctus the band Cinkusi has underlined their thematic concerns. Once more they have invited the famous world music diva of Medimurje, 85-year-old Aunt Liza, who sometimes seems to be able to squeeze tears from a stone with her strong, suggestive voice. This time Aunt Liza from Donja Dubrava sings a traditional song Sedi si kraj mene in a modern arrangement accompanied by skillful playing. Once again she has proved her brilliance and the lyrics about aging, experience and a good glass of drink that reflect especially in the refrain: »Ah, toci, naj dremati, nagni, naj sparati/ ce nebus pil bude ti zal/a zutra vec morti pod zemljom bus spal« (Pour, don't sleep. Drink, don't spare it. If you don't drink it, you will be sorry. Maybe tomorrow you will find yourself under ground.) They convey the silent sorrow, the sad joy and the awareness about time that passes on the wings of the rich sound of contrabass combined with the sweet sound of mandolin and striking electrical guitar, as well as the gentle sound of vibraphone played by another guest - Bosko Petrovic.

However, the fast and rhythmical song Bratec kosi opens the album with its part-singing and convincing, harsh lead vocal. There is no shortage of similar songs on this and their previous two albums. This is exactly what gives the band Cinkusi their direction and the reason why their style was named ethno-punk ever since the early days. That is why you can almost dance pogo – a wild dance that has been attributed to punk since its beginnings as one of its major characteristics - to the song Huja Brija carried by the sound of the violin. However, head-spinning dance and trance have always been associated with folklore music as well. That is why Cinkusi have merged two seemingly different energies and molded it into their recognizable energetic style that manifests at their concerts.

Since Cinkusi have a very active concert life in all parts of Croatia, it shouldn't be difficult to catch one of their shows in your area and witness this fascinating performance. Their next performance is scheduled for September 8th in Zagreb at Amadeo urban music and theatre scene at the Museum of arts and crafts where they have already played earlier this year. On that occasion their audience fell into an ecstasy, which they would gladly try to repeat.

However, speaking of Croatian world music, we must mention the performers who have marked it, especially those who have released their albums this year. One of the youngest world music bands in Croatia Afion has released its new album Cudni svati this year. After numerous concert appearances, they will perform at the Meditereeaneo festival in Ancona on August 30th. Contrary to Cinkusi, who are entirely dedicated to traditional Croatian music, especially that of the northern region of Croatia, Afion is inspired by different sources ranging from Croatia to Macedonia. Melodious and at the same time soft voice of Lidija Dokuzovic mostly relies on the acoustic music of the band whose sound cannot leave you indifferent. Sometimes it soothes, and sometimes it raises the dead. To clarify the name of the band, Afion comes from the Macedonian word for poppy which comes form the Greek word opion.
We mustn’t forget one of the gratest Croatian musicians -Tamara Obrovac. The title of her album Necu vise jazz kantati (I will not sing jazz any more) reveals the thought on which Obrovac and her always fresh Transhistrian build their music. If Cinkusi are ethno-punk, Obrovac and her band are ethno-jazz. They rely mostly on the musical traditions of Istria and the Mediterranean. Their new album, which is a step in a different direction, with electrical instruments and elements of funk could also be defined as ethno-jazz-funk.
Their concerts are a must-see, their skill and tendency to improvise make each of their performances uniquely enjoyable. Because you never know what they will pull out of their hat and turn music in to something it should be - a wonderful and enjoyable experience. Besides that and the remarkable way in which the leader of the band rules the stage, we must mention the unavoidable humor and dialogue with audience. As far as we have seen, no member of the audience is left feeling indifferent after their performance. Among many albums they have released so far Sve pasiva, Daleko je and Transhistria are the best, apart from the one we have already mentioned.
The fact that the Croatian musical web site Muzika didn’t select a pop, rock or hip-hop performer for the best Croatian album of last year proves the significance and strength of world music. They selected the album Kocijane by the world music band Kries lead by the charismatic Mojmir Novakovic. With his former band Legen, together with Lidija Bajuk and Dunja Knebl, an artist of calmer artistic expression and rare musical beauty, he was one of the founders of world music scene in Croatia. Legen’s album Paunov ples (Peacock’s dance) was one of the first and unavoidable world music albums. As soon as it appeared, it was embraced by some members of the electronic music scene, even those that liked techno. Their concerts, just like Kries’s now, were truly memorable. Almost palpable energy that streams through your fingers and feet twirls around in a circle just like the traditional circle dance.
However, Kries is becoming recognizable through its use of electronic music, strong beats, expressive bass drum and specific men’s and women’s part singing groups deeply imbedded in our folklore in combination with traditional instruments like lijerica and cimbalo as well as chants from different parts of Croatia. Apart from this album they have also composed music for the film Konjanik (The Rider) by director Branko Ivanda, recorded one of the best Croatian world music albums Ivo i Mara inspired by the songs about mythical Slavic heroes. 

Although our intention was not to name all the performers, we have to add another blues performer from Podravina Miroslav Evačić with two albums and stylistically ever changing Livio Morosin with his Istrian roots. If we were to search for the reason why this music isn’t present on our radio and television stations as much as it should be, we will find it in the fact that quality music is always obscured by the commercial and undemanding in every respect, which means hollow, unimaginative and without any real roots.
World music has that which is the most important – strong roots that you can lean on. Fortunately for the Croatian culture, there is no shortage of those who perform it as sure as we have more than enough musical treasure we inherited from our ancestors. Therefore, we should take care of it with the help of these guardians who are able to blow away the dust, polish it and adapt it. This is why we should give them credit, raise a glass in their honor and take our hat off to them.

Cinkus means a bell
The world music band Cinkusi has also composed the music for the award winning animated films Ciganjska and Silencijum by the authors Davor Medurecan and Marko Mestrovic (the band’s drum player) based on the literary works of Miroslav Krleza. It should be mentioned that Cinkusi are often inspired by the works of this great Croatian writer. Just to clarify the name of the band - in the kajkavian tradition cinkus means the bell that follows people from birth till death.

 

Bozidar Trkulja , VJESNIK

 

AFTER GREAT SEX COMES YET A GREATER DEATH

Spiritus Sanctus is only the third album of the band Cinkusi (Bells) in more than ten years of the band's existence, but here, luckily, it stands that quantity is reversely proportional to quality. Namely, Spiritus Sanctus does not at all fall behind the debut Zeleni Kader (Green Cadre) from 1999 or the fantastic Domesticus Vulgaris from 2005.
The new album presents us the Cinkusi on their already familiar territory, which are traditional Croatian (mostly kajkavian) melodies and descants combined with some modern (rock) elements and arrangements, but the final product is again a hit in the bull's eye. The Cinkusi do not see modern and traditional music as opposed to each other, but as two elements that lean on and complete each other.
Listening to their music, it is easy to imagine a storm over the woods or a meadow, where the onomatopoeic role is played equally by the electric guitar, which conjures thunder, the drums that sound like whirlwind and the violin, which imitates the crying of a little owl or a wolf's howling.
Cinkus is a name for the bell that accompanies people from their birth to their death, ringing to all important events in a person's life, including one's own very birth – and death.
While the prevalent theme of the album Domesticus Vulgaris was sexuality, it is death and the transience of life that keeps emerging from Spiritus Sanctus. The message: life passes quickly and we ought to enjoy it, rather than waste it on worrying and being nervous. Still, as in Cinkusi's music there is always present some dark underwater current, thus listening to it we can feel all the sorrow and pain of our ancestors given to us in inheritance.
A good example is the introductory Bratec kosi (Brother mows) with its seemingly gentle verses, but also with its melodies that emphasize the ominous allusion to incest. Huja brija is a revel that makes us forget all worries and problems, Bela is an ambiguous toying with words through a story about a card game, and Navigare Necesse Est composes into music the verses of Josko Bozanic in the extinct language of seamen lingua franca, more precisely, in the dialect of the island Komiza. Seemingly unusual in comparison to the rest of their opus, this last song actually deeply reflects the very spirit of the Cinkusi's music.
A novelty are two completely authorial songs. The first one depicts (mostly instrumentally) How Stef saw the Mother of God (Kak je Stef videl Majku Bozju)owing to his pure heart, and the other one, called Medo (The Bear), covers actual topics such as recession. Both songs easily fit into the rest of the album.
Even though it textually differs from the other songs, Medo's verses are made in the manner of short, but effective and witty folklore riffs that occur in traditional songs (Fear not of recession, of acid rain fear not, fear not of grey economy, fear not if a small willy is what you've got).
Guests on the album are Marijan Krajna and Marko First, whose accordion and violin respectively are perfectly in tune with the rest of the band; then there are Boris Saronja with his trumpet and Nikola Santro on trombone who bring freshness and another layer of emotions in some of the songs. Let's not forget two legends: a longtime friend of the Cinkusi, aunt Liza, and Bosko Petrovic, who make their appearance in the song Sedi si kraj mene (Come and sit down beside me).
The grand finale of the album is the song Nenadejano Bogcije Uzvisenje (The Unexpected Exaltation of the Lord) to the verses of the Cinkusi's beloved poet Miroslav Krleza, which perfectly sum all the themes of the album, while the music strongly evokes the atmosphere of the Judgment Day, when all deeds and misdeeds will be judged.
It seems that this year's best releases come from people who, to a greater or lesser extent, combine mainstream pop-rock music with the linguistic-musical inheritance of their region. Besides the Cinkusi, the first that come to mind are Tamara Obrovac, Gustafi and Zan Jakopac (I have probably at this moment unintentionally forgotten to mention some others). It may be that the problem with the so-called urban performers is that lately (with honorable exceptions) they have lost touch with the street and the city they live in, while they restrict themselves to their narrow microcosms and introspection.
It is because of the way the Cinkusi manage to present their own tradition in their own way – without losing any of its magic – that I nominate Spiritus Sanctus among all others for Croatian Album of the year 2009.

 

Marko Vukusic , MUZIKA.HR

 

 

CINKUSI - AMADEO, ZAGREB, 08.09.2009(CONCERT)

"There is no greater Croatian live band" is the sentence that follows the Cinkusi all the way back from the publication of the small, but influential album Zeleni Kader. It was already then that they earned the etiquette of the Pogues live. But from their days of glory, nothing else mattered when the dust from the stage arose under the band's naked feet. At times they would justify their recognition, but at times their second, not so convincing album Domesticus Vulgaris cast a little shadow. But judging by their new material and the rock approach to world music, things are beginning to fall back into their place. There is no need for drumming for their rhythm beats strongly. The Cinkusi are an effective machine made of experienced musicians who know how to raise an atmosphere and how to rock from the soul. People love them. Their audience is not numerous, but it's faithful. And that kind of audience creates an atmosphere. Now, considering the idea of debauch present in their new album, the band is very much like that on stage as well. They rock on. Krleza would have been pleased if he knew how ably they manage to translate his poetry and apply it in musical context. The Cinkusi have transected their whole career, stayed faithful to their ghosts of the night and rocked it out.
In the pleasant ambiance of the Zagreb club-music summer scene Amadeo (Museum of Arts and Crafts), the Cinkusi have rang their promotion, and now we are waiting for people's reactions to the work of the front-runners of the KAJ Wave.

Jasna Gabric , DOP MAGAZIN

CD DOMESTICUS VULGARIS

2005. CANTUS

Cinkusi won me over on the very first hearing, as a genuine ethno-punk band which lives up to both parts of that label. Their belonging to the ethno camp requires no detailed explanation; yet this kajkavian version of The Pogues also possesses an indisputable punk ethos. In other words, there’s a passionate dedication to both their regional roots and contemporary interpretations, something which has been fully expressed on each of their albums.
This latest one seems to be even more deeply immersed in their emotions and view of life, particularly due to their having selected the ultimate lyricists. On this CD Cinkusi have once again clearly proved their intention of remaining true to themselves, regardless of which way the wind is blowing in Croatian show business.
To sum up: Cinkusi are among our most precious oases of sincerity, consistency and talent.

Darko Glavan

Music for animated film SILENCIJUM, 2005.

Directors: Marko Mestrovic and Davor Medurecan

Production: Kreativni sindikat

...Autori se sada vraćaju s filmom »Silencijum« temeljenom, kao i prvi put, na »Baladama Petrice Kerempuha « Miroslava Krleže, a objekt zanimanja filma je sloboda. Atmosfera je mračna, dostojna predloška, a odvija se u dva doba, modernom i feudalnom. Autori kažu da su željeli naglasiti, a to im je i uspjelo, »kako se u feudalno doba društvena represija odvija putem fizičke sile, a u moderno doba sofisticiranim metodama masovne hipnoze putem medija«.
Za glazbu su ponovno bili zaduženi Cinkuši, a dijelom ju je napravio i Boris Wagner, dok je stihove čitao Vid Balog.

Božidar Trkulja, VJESNIK, 30.03.2006.

Music for animated film CIGANJSKA,
2005.

Directors: Marko Mestrovic and Davor Medurecan


Production: Kreativni sindikat / FadeIn

….''Ciganjska is a movie of a thoughtfully balanced rythm, harmonious expressionistic configuration of images and functional ethno-music naturally grown into animation which allows us while watching to discover and recognize are own feelings. It is a short-form film which, although made with sophisticated computer technique, depends on minimalism of a primary visual artisany, the one that lingers in our memory the longest. Ciganjska is constructed as a musical animated film whose structure and rythm are formed by dance expressed primarily by interplay of black surfaces on top of a grey ones, by rainy background, details like black umbrellas and hats, dark glasses on a singer's face, guitar's black ''eye'' and a dark hole in the grave. In spite of its musical basis, or precisely thanks to it, Ciganjska is a damped, silent movie, whose story is told whispering. It is a visual musical story about old age and evanescence, about futility of human duration and music as the best means of getting through life with not so many scars on one's soul. At the same time, it is a collective portrait of the Balkan people who drown their sorrow in brandy which is usually not pungent enough so they spice it even more with a snake poison.
We find the film's participators on a tiny island of their mother-tongue and memories (which are forms of oblivion, as Kundera would say) where they dance their death-bed dance and only at the end, after a bottle with a snake and brandy inside it is being drunk, we begin to understand that it is all about a group of outsiders which are at the bottom (or in a getto) of megalopolis, people caught in a gigantic concrete-trap sick of depression which came about as a result of industrialisation, inhuman projects, demolished monuments, of factories and chimneys throwing up death for the nature surrounding them. In a world which feels like a trap, it is impossible to desert from one's own life, to evade into another one and into a different reality, in any other way except by abondaning life''…

 

Midhat Ajanovic, ZAREZ, 01.07.2004

 

‘’…Animated film by authors Marko Mestrovic and Davor Medurecan is the only Croatian movie that entered competition of this year’s Animafest. We are talking about a really excellent achievement in so much that authorities in the field of animated film Stiv Cinik and otherwise classically reserved Josko Marusic, unisonously claim that ‘’Ciganjska’’ is a true little miracle and the best thing that has happened to an animated film over the last 15 years. With particularly dark atmosphere and anxiety, this animated film is based on one of ‘’Balade Petrice Kerempuha’’ texts by Miroslav Krleza, the ballade ‘’Ciganjska’’ written in 1936.
All 9 minutes and 19 seconds of duration of this supreme 3D computer animation, strongly draw us in the character’s inner world, and, as the authors themselves said, emphasise estrangement on an asphalt jungle and confusing urge for auto-destruction. Parallel with the poetics of German expressionism is drawn quite clearly and additionally emphasised by eerie music played by ethno group ‘’Cinkusi’’, probably the single most important contribution to creating atmosphere in ‘’Ciganjska’’. Music is incredibly powerful and it draws us hypnotically into the world of Krleza’s ballade characters…’’

Gordana Kolanović, VIPMOVIES, 16.03.2004.

CD ZELENI KADER 1999.

Croatia Records & Kopito Records

 

 

FOLK SINGERS WITH PUNK ENERGY

Cinkusi are one of the most interesting and most promising surprises coming from the predictable stylistic categories of local show-business - folksters with spontaneity, sincereness and punk energy!Their inaugurative album came to realization with the help of a producer Darko Pecotic from Legen, but in spite of his important contribution to the neatness of the sound-picture, Cinkusi kept their identity which was substantially differed both from Legen and Lidije Bajuk. Reinterpretation, that is synchronization with modern electronic sound, is in the foreground of the mentioned progenitors of the ''ethno ambient'' approach, while Cinkusi - like Dunja Knebl – are much more imbedded in the tradition. As suggested by the thoughtful ''newly-composed'' songs (socialist realist ''U divljaka luk i strijela'', chanson ''Stari Pjer''), Cinkusi choose compositions that posses codes of collective emotionality and primarily insist on authentic atmosphere of folk merrymaking in their performance.But it is not programmed crassness a la Trio Gusti and similar representatives of ''partying until dawn'' orientation, but musicians' vocation that takes into consideration both the authenticity of the original as well as its adjustment to the contemporary standards of ''unplugged instrumentation''.

Cinkusi's advantage over most of local ethno musicians is that they have, I suppose primarily spontaneously, come up with a combination of traditional and contemporary as opposed to more or less successful attempts of intellectual construction.While others are searching, they have found it! And while at it, unabashedly enjoying themselves!

 

Darko Glavan, VECERNJI LIST

 

CINKUSI – MUSIC THAT GIVES YOU AN X-RAY PICTURE OF THE SPIRIT OF MAĐIMURJE AND ZAGORJE

Zeleni kader album by Cinkusi (Croatia Records) counts among that kind of records which offer us hope that good old-fashioned folk party has not yet been extinct in these times of electronically-intensified mass media’s virtual entertainment’s rule, as well as that it is possible from positions which include grey brain cells, the streetwise oriented ones. Cinkusi’s music is of completely opposite sign from the unwitty ‘’hoppings’’ for dancing on the table, which is an even greater success since it is primarily about a non-fiddled merrymaking ‘’with balls’’.
With a help from Darko Pecotić from Legen, the sound picture of the Zeleni kader album is a good example of a quality hi-fi merchandise, while the music itself is a pure and relentless enjoyment, a sort of a mouth-breathing of the atrophied local Estrada which in this overflow of pseudo-folk musicians forgot what a real folk music sounds like.
By combining traditional songs into a somewhat of an x-ray picture featuring state of mind of this climate between Medjimurje and Zagorje, playing on the acoustic instruments provides an opportunity for boundless ’’ungirtidness’’, while textually speaking, it is about a successful proportion of funny and elegiac themes. With an exception of the guitar player Mirko Radusic’s Meknite se gore and Ivica Percl’s Stari Pjer, we find only traditional ‘’drmesi’’ and songs like U divljaka luk i strijela (with a legendary verse Nek nam živi živi rad inserted within), but their ‘’handcrafted songs’’ are more a product of intuition than of a rigid working principles and so the album Zeleni kader as not so many discography editions, if we look back a couple of years, authentically witnesses the mentality which does not use a ‘’remote control’’. Without sugarcoating that seems to come naturally with the ‘’new-composed’’ entertainers with the last (in the best case penultimate) intentions, Zeleni kader is an example of a full-blooded ’’ungirtidness’’ which in a manner of an authentic folk strategy breaks down the barriers between performers and the audience. The performance in the Zagreb’s KSET on Tuesday the 1st of February is a chance to verify performer’s profile which, logically, functions the best when experienced ‘’live’’.

Hrvoje Horvat, VJESNIK

 

Cinkusi evidently show that quality ethno-music doesn’t necessary have to be serious, gentle, hollow or even irritating to some groups of listeners. Halfway between Legen and Dreletronic, with a strong resemblance to Pogues, Cinkusi represent personification of a Jozice Zgubidana’s band from the novel U registraturi. Joyous, perky, with a violin and a mandolin in their instrumentation, they did a fine job rearranging traditional songs, mostly from Medjimurje and Zagorje region. With the exception of a hellish rearrangement of a Partisan hit Da nam zivi, zivi rad (here entitled U divljaka luk i strijela), great cover Stari Pjer by Novkovic and Percl and the original Meknite se si gore ending with a verse "big balls of Vinko Pintaric". With this kind of repertoire, Cinkusi have good chances of becoming a great live band.

Bojan Muscet, JUTARNJI LIST

 

For the band Cinkusi, one can say that they emerged out of expected development of the local ethno-scene, stimulated and greatly helped by members of the Legen band. By rearranging 11 folk songs of the Medjimurje and Zagorje region, and the good old hit Stari Pjer by Djordje Novkovic, through their quite specific arrangements varying from rock and jazz to Irish folk, they have created one exceptional album, but most importantly, very pleasant for listening. Unusual, but intelligent arrangements, made out of unknown (or sometimes known quite well) folk songs, a sequence of potential hits for everyday broadcasting. Unusual, but unusually good album highly recommended and definitely above the average of the local offer.

 

Dubravko Jagatic, SLOBODNA DALMACIJA