After the albums “Riva degli Schiavoni” and “El Shatt” which the ethno/world music ensemble Vladimir & Kalafat, released under PDV Records, their new studio album “Evala Mare Evala” (PDV070) will be available on all digital platforms on Friday, November 17th. The Kalafat ensemble was founded in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is a musical project by Mostar artist, academic sculptor, painter, and graphic artist Vladimir Mićković. The ensemble consists of artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Israel, Morocco, and Serbia. Vladimir Mićković, with his brilliant voice, serves as a guide through musical experiences and traditions of the world he originates from, orchestrating transcendental historical-geographical journeys through Braudel’s Mediterranean in his albums.
Critics have declared Vladimir Mićković’s music as an extension of the “Mediterranean Breviary” by his fellow citizen, Predrag Matvejević. Through a remarkably convincing personal approach, Mićković vividly portrays the encounter of Dalmatia with the rest of the Mediterranean tradition, bringing us closer to its culture and heritage.
Intrigued by the 19th-century period when many people from Dalmatia migrated to Istanbul in search of a better life to establish themselves as renowned shipbuilders, captains, engineers, cartographers, and printers, Vladimir & Kalafat steer the musical course from Dalmatia to Istanbul on the Bosphorus in their new album “Evala Mare Evala.”
Writer Marko Tomaš states, “Stories of these people, those who, as Dr. Kolonja said in the famous “Travniča hronika” returned to the world they left through travelers and storytellers, have reached us through time. If we want to live with these stories, we must understand people who embarked on distant journeys, fled in exodus and migrated across the planet.”
The music of these regions, from the Adriatic to the Bosphorus, is a beautiful contribution and a crucial element in the vast sea. The unique, united world that dissipated two thousand years ago is once again coming together in a singular Mediterranean amalgam. This music modestly adds a few lines to the stories of Mediterranean destinies, longings, and loves – everything that is inherited but intangible. The song is the most beautiful packaging for conveying nostalgia for a lost homeland.
Five songs, rooted in the traditional music of the Mediterranean, evoking the traditional connections between Dalmatia and Constantinople, await us on the new Vladimir & Kalafat album “Evala Mare Evala“, with cover art by Toni Soprano Meneglejte, it is set to release on Friday, November 17th, on all streaming services.
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