ALBUM ‘KOSOVSKE” | MILOS ZUBAC
‘Kosovske” album by Serbian singer-songwriter Milos Zubac is tainted with just the right amount of rustic tinge. It’s entirely warranted, of course within both folk music and the wider artistic spectrum to have such a keenly honed ability to locate in a song the emotional essence that can, in just a single phrase or vocal elision, cut one to the quick. Rather than a gift or innate instinct, it’s the result of a remarkable feat of collective aesthetics in which Milos’ subtle arrangements draw the maximum impact from Serbian cultural heritage, originated from Kosovo and Metohija, and his distinctive intonations. Applied cleverly, the results are an artistry of bygone times, folklore and drama, as demonstrated on this ground-breaking album.
Songs are sung in a gentle breathy caress, Milos’ powerful baritone supported by angel-like female vocalists who create this illusion that the words drifting away, feather-like, at the ends of lines. ‘Kosovske” songs employed avian and pastoral imagery to evoke mild frustration and yearning with an air of wistful melancholy. The connection to his father’s work; Pero Zubac (writer and actor) was startlingly clear, though that influence is far from their sole value. Realised here in expressive interpretations and interspersed with piano/electric guitar of Nemanja Nesic, these songs are full of acute observations, deft allusions and metaphors, and the subtlest of emotional revelations, wielded with a Serbian unrestraint redolent with the aromas of history.
On one level, there’s a warm sense of communion with the ancient Kosovo and Metohija, but just beneath the calm surface lurk currents of desire. The desire, however, bears little relation to today’s tawdry evocative poetry, but offers instead the sweet expression of artistic ambition, from the gentle reflection on music’s capacity to stir memories and emotions.
Zubac’s piquant tone reveals the mystery and charm in “Kosovske’ wistful delivery suggests the silken chains that bind a heart. Must have this Autumn.
