VLADA DIVLJAN

Although being out of Belgrade during almost entire past decade, Vlada Divljan was more present at domestic musical stage than most domestic authors owing to his making the soundtrack for the “Three Palms for Two Bums and a Fish”, issuing the “Defence and Protection” (B92) album with the Old Stars Band and the latest release titled “All Lies of the World”.

In his new album created in Vienna and Belgrade in cooperation with some of his old associates (Aleksandar Sandorov, Boris Bunjac, Zdenko Kolar…), but with the new ones as well (Dule Petrovic, Paul Weihs…), Vlada Divljan managed to realize a provocative but discreet image intertwining programming and “live performance”, unrestrained emotion and cool precision, both expected and unexpected sounds, acoustics and electronics, Australia, Vienna, Belgrade. A reference to the 60s when a plethora of forms could be heard on the radio channels – from pop songs to east-European jazz experiments, has been enriched in “Die Tonzentrale” by immeasurable contemporary experience of various electronic and home-made music courses.

Vlada explains his embarking on “Die Tonzentrale” in his own words: “I arrived to Vienna, the city of Schubert and Freud, waltz and electronic music, 1999 in spring. I came there to spend a week, but have remained for four years now. We first lived in the vicinity of the Nachtmarkt, the biggest Vienna market place, then in the Mexikoplatz, and finally in the Porzellangasse, on the roof (literally) of the theatre called Schauspielhaus. I have been engaged in music, mostly the so-called “tailor-made” music I most often created and sometimes selected (working with the ORF). That music was heard by the prominent Viennese Kulturkontakt and Wien Kultur cultural funds, without the help of which there would be no “Die Tonzentrale””.