Through the lovely sounds of Croatian music, the core of musical experimentation is challenged through the waves of the country's underground pop scene. Through synth pop and other offspring of popular music implications, this subgenre manages to be heavily influenced by the historical sounds of “Croatian New Wave” as the phenomenal, angelic soul “Svemirko” graces the eardrums of many in his captivating take on love, life, and loss.
“Musical intelligence” is a subjective term, in my humble opinion. To base someone’s musical ability on a one-sided mind or a general public’s perception on accuracy of knowledge, is completely an unfair reoccurrence. Through different varieties of musical outlets, through the winds of multiple genres, it is important that the value of the content be based on the feeling and emotion it brings out in one another. The truth surrounding musical intelligence is that everyone or every musician has musical intelligence. There is a scale or many levels in which a person dives into the musical parts of the brain. By doing so, they adapt to a way of thinking and walk of life.
Is it truly reasonable to just assume that horrible music determines environment, value, and quality? Or, is it possible that because we are conditioned as individuals to retract from things, we are not aware or educated about painting with crude negativity? These thoughts circle my mind when I hear criticism through a music perspective. The beautiful part of music is that it is all around us! The sounds we hear, from the birds flying through the sky, to the crickets that play their distant melody in the dark of night, music is everywhere! Through the understanding of sound, experimentation can occur. Musicians find themselves inspired through sounds that make the eardrums form a curious question mark. This question mark is not a bad thing. It is an amazing thing. These question marks of curiosity form from the unique sounds of the Croatian singer, “Svemirko”.
Svemirko!
Marko Vukovic, also known as “Svemirko” is a Dakovo native who lives to produce and sing from the soul. Resting his head currently in the city of Zagreb, the artist progressed to the musical persona he is today through other names such as Kimekai and Nikonar for precious projects. Svermirko developed unique and Croatian goodness with his 2017 debut album “Vanilla”.
The monumental album centers around the intensity and the motion of dance through the sounds of experimental music as synth pop developed at a rapid pace in the Croatian region. According to Wikipedia, synth pop (short for synthesizer pop) is an offspring of new wave music. The techno pop genre became prominent in many circles of societies in the 1970s as the rise of electronic music began to form. The electro pop sound receives criticism through various musical outlets as it is seen as an emotionless and heavy lack of musicianship. However, through festivals, various radio stations and the energetic world of bars and clubs, synth pop has made a stable home in many places around the world and is all things music!
Recorded, mixed, and produced by “Svemirko” himself, the album proclaims the perspective of “observation”. Through an alienation mindset, the songs reflect different events and people through wavelengths and frequencies of beings on planet earth. This artistic approach has reached millions through live performances around the Croatian area.
Songs of Croatian Sounds
“Last night, I drank the last beer. Didn’t say the words, and now I feel guilty.”
Regret is a common feeling we all have at some point in time. This feeling of wanting to express an important action through words or physical expression, yet time slipped away, results in us feeling puzzled, sad, and confused. In the track “Slucajna Cesta” the longing and guilty feeling is expressed through vintage chords and repetitive texture of instrumentation. The video aesthetically brings you back to a simpler time, as the gritty yet humorous scenes express the self-destruction guilt can perspire surrounding love.
Through the vast interpretations of “Svemirko”, this particular song brings a wide range of the listener to understand the meaning of this time machine of a sound in the track “34,5”. The 1980s heavily influenced track alludes to a nature of suspicion and questionable intention. “I have a secret about me dug underneath a thousand graves. I am hiding underneath the light of the brightest sun. I need you for a day.” The theory surrounding this song is the concept of sexuality and its reflective nature. Hiding in plain sight, as sexuality sometimes stereotypes could suggest the pondering of the need to discover or experiment different elements of same or opposite counterparts. As there are references to religion it leads me to interpret the multitude of negative attention one can endure through the constant journey of finding oneself.
My favorite song on the album comes from a softer side of love and its illusions it can obtain. Through the breeze of love and lust and its variations of complicated gestures, there is sometimes the feeling in love where it blows away swiftly in the breeze. There is this back and forth effect about longing for someone and letting go of someone. Through this inner pain, the lyrics speak to the notion in pure justice. “I’m crying while you’re looking at me on this long-lost day. And I’m lying about everything that was in one never-ending breath”. The uncertain fear collapses in realization as the instrumental break brings this uncomfortable sadness and unwanted positioning of the heart through smooth and breathtaking instrumentation in the groundbreaking track “Ja znam da nesto unimam”
Experiencing his sound and musicality makes me feel like a young child opening up gifts on Christmas day. The authenticity melted with monumental lyrical content just gives a whole new meaning to musical intelligence. You won’t be disappointed as you embark on the life changing sounds of “Svemirko”.
Photos: Shutterstock / Photomontage: Martina Advaney
Check the review of traditional Croatian music and Croatian New Wave here:
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