About the CD "Cafe
Sevdah"
BBC - WORLD REVIEW MUSIC/Album
08 January 2008
...Throughout, the musicianship of the group's
veteran performers is impeccable - wonderfully fluent, sinuous and
brimming with passion. While the overall feeling may be melancholy,
it's a beautiful kind of sadness that leaves the listener inspired
rather than depressed. This reviewer is not the first to label Mostar
Sevdah Reunion as the Balkans' answer to Buena Vista Social Club,
but lazy journalism or not, the comparison is apposite and well earned....
read more
Dutch Press
Beyond december 2007
Met hun nieuwe zanger-gitarist Nermic Alukci
maakt Mostar Sevdah Reunion misschien wel de mooiste plaat tot nog
toe...read more
Froots - january 2008
New vocalists Nermin Alukic, Elmedin Balalic
and Suad Bolic handeling things superbly while the arrangements vary
from jazz piano flavours on two tracks to the elemental Ottoman voice,
hands and feet of Ali-Pasha in Herzegovina.....
read more
Songlines january - 2008
...It is a beautifully package album,
with translated lyrics - very important with these poetic, usually
melancholy songs - and images from beautrifull old postcards of Mostar
in the early 20th century... read
more
The Guardian - december 2007
...this Balkan answer to the blues is
transformed and updated by being matched against contemporary blues
and jazz influences...
...A subtle and intriguing band. ... read
more
Dutch press
Ton Maas, De Volkkrant, November 2007
De laatste jaren waren ze wat
naar de achtergrond gedrongen, maar Mostar Sevdah Reunion is in vrijwel
geheel vernieuwde bezetting terug met een ijzersterke cd.
Het klankpalet wordt nu gedomineerd door het inventieve gitaarspel
van oudgediende Miso Petrovic en de zorgvuldig gedoseerde pianopartijen
van Gabrijel Prusina.
Grootste aanwinst is zanger Nermin Alukic,
wiens licht gevoileerde stem een viertal tracks siert. Hoogtepunten
zijn de ballade Kraj pendzera Jusuf stari, over de oude Jusuf die
bij het raam gezeten peinzend terugblikt op zijn lange leven, en het
bedwelmend mooie Gondze ruza, waarin Alukic een rozenknop bezingt.
(Clive Davis, the Sunday
Times, November 2007)
What would happen if you parachuted
Van Morrison into deepest Bosnia? It might seem a silly question,
but the collision of cultures on this latest release from one of the
great Balkan institutions really does conjure up fleeting thoughts
of the gloomy one in full swing. It's not hard to detect a melancholic
hint of the blues in the Bosnian folk style of sevdah, and the unabashedly
jazzy flavour of some of these pieces underscores the connection.
The band is on a roll at the moment, and this roughhewn recording
is every bit as varied and full-blooded as previous collaborations
with the likes of Ljiljana Buttler.
About the CD "
Mostar Sevdah Reunion and Lliljana Buttler - The Legends of Life"
BBC - WORLD REVIEW MUSIC/Album
by Jon Lusk
11 January 2008
The bulk of the songs are traditional, but
Buttler's own brooding masterpiece Tesko Je Umreti hangs in the air
with a mesmerising power, amplified by sterling instrumental support.
The slithering violin of Slobodan Stancic lights up this and several
other pieces, as does Mustafa Santic's empathetic accordion and clarinet.
A walking bass on Mirisni Cvetak is one example of the subtle jazz
influence that colours some arrangements, and the epic traditional
song Placem Vec Tri Dana sounds like an inspired Balkan rewrite of
Led Zeppelin's blues showstopper, Since I've Been Loving You.
There are a few upbeat dances such as Verka Kaludjerka and Andro Verka
and even some laughter to lighten things, but it's the slower numbers
that really burn themselves into the memory. Misery has seldom sounded
so musical. Whole article
(john Lusk, BBC Music
magazine proms, august 2007 - BBC Music Choise)
After a Stellar Career in the Kafanas (music
bars) of former Yugoslavia, Gypsy singer Ljiljana Buttler fled the
Balkan war for obscure exile in Germany in 1990 before intrepid producer
Dragi Sestic'rediscovered' her. With the viruoso acoustic group Mostar
Sevdah Reunion, they made The mother of Gypsy soul (2003), a breathtaking
collection of classic Bosnian sevdalinka - slow, tragic love songs.
This 2005 follow - up of Roma and Yugoslav standars is marvellous.
Buttlers's deep, sobbing voice is given sterling instrumental support,
in particular by Mustafa Santic's accordion and clarinet and quest
violinist Slobodan Stancic. A few upbeat dances lighten teh mood,
but otherwise misery has seldom sounded so musical.
(Garth Carthwright, Froots
Magazine, UK, june 2007)
....The legends of Life is, to me, an even
better album than Mother of Gypsy Soul. For a start, singer and band
are more familiar with one another so the music rolls effortlessly
forward. Ljiljana's wonderfully deep voice sailing above the ensemble's
beatific playing...
...A colossal Achievement... read more
About the CD " Mostar Sevdah Reunion
and Lliljana Buttler - The
(Sunday Times, UK, April
2007)Legends of Life"
Now here is a voice that has been lived in.
Once a leading light of Balkan gypsy music, Buttler spent a decade
or more in obscurity in exile, at one time working as a cleaner to
make ends meet. A comeback album won acclaim a couple of years ago,
and this new disc is every bit as atmospheric. Buttler’s voice
is surprisingly masculine and bluesy; and, if it is occasionally wayward,
she has magnificent support from that Bosnian institution the Mostar
Sevdah Reunion, creating a relaxed ambience poised between jazz, folk
and blues. Another local legend, Saban Bajramovic, makes an appearance,
but this is very much Buttler’s show.
