Meeting Danica

As I’m writing this post we are driving through the Serbian mountains. We have left Kragujevac where we were very warmly welcomed last night by twelve year old singer Danica Krstic and her family. In less than 24 hours we got to know them a little bit and recorded two beautiful traditional Balkan songs; Zaspo Janko and Ajde Kato. The first was filmed in the orthodox town church (Danica wearing a traditional white dress with colourful flowers)..a stunning atmospheric church with iconic paintings everywhere..A lot of golden ornaments and the smell of incense. No musical instruments were allowed in here, only the two pure voices, singing a melancholic song. As Bert pointed out..there was not even an organ..in contrast to Dutch churches where a lot of things are possible nowadays.

all musicians

Afterwards we went outside to meet with four musicians, some of whom we’d met the day before and they were excellent players. With this small orchestra (violin, double bass, accordion and guitar) Danica and I recorded the song Ajde Kato. Bert was the sound engineer for today and didn’t play himself.

So I sang in Serbian today..and managed to remember the words, not knowing what they meant but concentrating on the sound and trying to follow the pronunciation. I think I did well..the people were satisfied and the priest gave me a compliment. It was a fruitful day!

(I also was interviewed and filmed for a TV Station and they will use a track of the Ygdrassil Live at the Folkwoods Festival DVD in their broadcast)

traffic jam in Serbia, on our way to Kragujevac, on sunday

waiting for our recording session in the beautiful orthodox church

singing with Danica (Zaspo Janko) Danica and Linde

with Danica and her orchestra, outside the church (Ajde Kato)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

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Tags: balkan, bert ridderbos, linde nijland, road to bhutan, traditional music, ygdrassil