Vlatko Stefanovski - Krushevo CD

 Perfection!
As I am approaching this review of yet another majestic work of Macedonian art, I sense an inability to say anything truly consequential only on the basis of my past experiences of the sounds of the Krushevo recording. I, rather, feel compelled to bring those sounds in the immediacy of my present, by playing them again on my CD, in order to be able to relate to the recording's art in an intelligible manner.
It is significant, I think, that this album was titled "Krushevo," because the little town of Krushevo has been considered to be the birthplace of "Macedonian liberty" and their perennial strive for liberation and emancipation. The connection between Krushevo as an "over-the-ages-abiding" symbol of freedom and Tadic/Stefanovski's Krushevo is in the fact that the music of this album is consciously cultural/ethnic in character, and, thus, imbued with the elements and themes of the "Macedonian saga."
The ten selections are in fact creative elaborations on familiar Macedonian folk tunes. And, perhaps, to the less perceptive listener, they would remain just that; old Macedonian folk songs. However, the songs' titles which indicate romance, affection and love, conceal the actual meanings expressed by the graceful and full sounds of Tadic/Stefanovski's guitars reverberating in the empty Macedonium spaceship-like monument. Because, they implicitly, but beautifully, express and embody the pain-filled, melancholic, struggle of the Macedonian people; a long struggle primarily aimed at achieving recognition and genuine identity.
It seems to me that the statue building, the Macedonium, in which the recording of this album occurred, is also a telling and fitting symbol of the true motifs and meanings of the music on this recording. Namely, it is a monument likened to a solid "spaceship," as so perceived by Todd Garfinkle too (the producer of the project), with a number of windows most of which are turned towards the sky. Now, the "sky," or the space, is always a representation of unlimited freedom, for there are no borders or boundaries there. But, Macedonium is just a heavy "spaceship" from which the unlimited and ultimate freedom of the starry space can be experienced only by looking through its windows. It is, in a sense, a representation of the unfortunate Macedonian reality in which liberty is confined to the spaceship, and in which true freedom and unconfined progress is practically unattainable.
The music of this recording, therefore, provides not only for an encounter with one part of the rich Macedonian folk music, but it also affords an experience of the deepest and most profound "substance" of the culture of the Macedonian people, which has so conspicuously carried within itself such elements as sadness, melancholy, and even hopelessness.
And, I think, precisely because of this fact Krushevo is a "must" for all who are burdened with the noble desire to explore and understand the artistic expressions of human cultures, in order to come to appreciate those cultures and love the people they represent.
Submitted by mikov (Glendale, CA)
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