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Music Archive • Music Archaeology

The Veprah Archive

Saturday sessions in an underground shelter beneath the lawn of post-socialist idyllic blockflats neighbourhood, 1997–2001.

The StoryZgodba

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Slovenia, in the mystical city of Ljubljana, in the mythical district of Moste, in the minuscule neighbourhood of Kodeljevo, in a small underground shelter simply called ‘the place’, there was a free improvisational collective of musicians that were neither. Neither musicians nor a collective. But not really. To solve the dilemma, they named and adopted instead the entity that had embodied itself in the space between them – and devoted themselves to making music.

In regular weekly meetings from 1997 to 2001, at the turn of the decade – no, the century! no, no, the millennium! – they decided to register and record it all. To have all the proof of how they managed to change the world, and themselves. See the scars! See the stitches! See the bloodstains! See all that was lost and found – and lost again! We can bring witnesses! It’s all true!

And so, twenty-odd years later, all the recordings, captured with a home-made stereo microphone, are slowly floating to the surface, letting themselves be archaeologically restored, cultivated, intellectually recycled and reconceptualised.

Nekoč, v nekem drugem in drugačnem času, v magični deželi Sloveniji, v mističnem mestu Ljubljani, v mitološki četrtni skupnosti Moste, v misterioznem naselju Kodeljevo, v majhnem podzemnem zaklonišču preprosto poimenovanem ‘plac’, je deloval prosto improvizirajoč kolektiv glasbenikov, ki to niso bili. Ne glasbeniki, ne kolektiv. A tudi to ni povsem držalo. V iskanju razrešitve te dileme so rajši poimenovali substanco, ki se je utelesila v prostor med njimi, in se posvetili glasbenemu početju.

V rednih tedenskih srečevanjih od 1997 do 2001 so se na obratu dekade – ne, stoletja! ne, ne, tisočletja! – odločili, da zvočno zabeležijo in posnamejo vse. Da bi imeli vse dokaze, kako so uspeli spremeniti svet in sebe. Poglejte te brazgotine! Poglejte te krvave madeže! Ozrite se na vse, kar je bilo izgubljeno in najdeno – in ponovno izgubljeno! Lahko privedemo priče! Vse je res!

In tako, po 20 in več letih, vsi zvočni posnetki (zabeleženi z doma narejenim stereo mikrofonom) počasi plavajo proti površini, se pustijo arheološko restavrirati, kultivirati, intelektualno reciklirati in rekonceptualizirati.

Veprah on Bandcamp → Read the pre-manifesto ↓
The SessionsSeanse

22 restored sessions out of 128 • tap a cover for details

The Pre-manifestoPredmanifest

Pre-manifesto?

“…and we closed the door behind us.”

Veprah came, and sat, and into the sofa he sat. Then came three. And there were three, and in the dark, and they set about lighting a blue light. And they had a synthesaurus, old and bony, and it had keys. And they set about pressing the keys, and they had guitars and biiiiiig drums. And they cracked the drums like walnuts, and then came Stane. And Stane, the drums. And Deff did the little chapel. And Brencelj was there. And then it went down, but not much. And then came the fourth, and it was bass, and there were four. And Veprah said: hoop-lala, I’m sitting down! And they said: swish! swish! swish! And they had microphones. And they put them on the tin platter, the barbarians! And they creaked every Saturday and all the Saturdays. And then Veprah put out the light. And how! How!

The cooled lava of a sonic eruption:
regular Saturday under-hours (beneath the lawn of the soc-idyllic neighbourhood of people’s hero M.) of three, four, five, six, who never managed to name themselves, and so named that which had settled into the space between them: VEPRAH.

How should a group of musicians work that is not a group, who are not musicians? How should it stake out its field of action? Our premises were: group action, real-time creation, the use of a concrete psychoacoustic space, a consistent, documentary record of the event. Personal aspects we did not even discuss. For one of us it was a mystical experience, for another the solving of a technical problem, for a third a medical experiment – and all of these claims may also be entirely wrong. We set in motion a process of intimate, secret Saturday revolution.

Let us move on to big words: we were changing the world, and we changed it – by shutting ourselves under the ground and changing ourselves. We have proof! We can show scars, chipped teeth, stitches and welds; we can list equipment lost, destroyed, alienated and vanished in unexplained circumstances! We can even bring in a few witnesses by force! Let the exhumation begin!

On these pages, fragments of a war diary will be published consistently inconsistently: the chronicle of a screaming war against logic.

And logic grew tired of us and said: I’m not playing any more, have it your way.

And VEPRAH snickered into his fist. And his fist was his arse.

written for Veprah by dr. rAdio, 2003

Predmanifest?

»…in smo zaprli vrata za sabo.«

Veprah je príšel pa je sedél in v zofo sedél. Pa so prišli trije. Pa so bili trije in v temi in so prižigat jeli modro luč. Pa so imeli sintezavra starega koščenega pa so imeli tipke. Pa so jeli tipke pritiskati pa so imeli kitare in veliiiiiko bobné. Pa so bobne tolkli kot orehe pa je prišel Stane. Pa je Stane bobne. Pa je Deff kapelco. Pa je Brencelj. Pa je šlo dol pa ne zelo. Pa je prišel četrti pa so bili štirje. Pa je Veprah rekel, hopla, sedim! Pa so rekli: švist! švist! Pa so imeli mikrofoné. Pa so dali na pleh, barbari! Pa so škripali vsako soboto in vse sobote. Pa je Veprah luč gasil. Pa hudo!

Ohlajena lava zvočne erupcije:
redne sobotne pod-ure (pod zelenico soc-idilične soseske narodnega heroja M.) treh, štirih, petih, šestih, ki sebe niso umeli poimenovati, zato so poimenovali tisto, kar se je naselilo v prostor med njimi: VEPRAH.

Kako naj deluje skupina glasbenikov, ki ni skupina, ki niso glasbeniki? Kako naj si zakoliči polje delovanja? Naše predpostavke so bile: skupinska akcija, sprotno tvorstvo, izraba konkretnega psihoakustičnega prostora, dosleden, dokumentaren zapis dogodka. O osebnih vidikih niti nismo govorili. Za enega je bila to mistična izkušnja, za drugega reševanje tehničnega problema, za tretjega medicinski eksperiment, vse trditve so lahko tudi scela napačne. Vzpostavili smo proces intimne, skrivne sobotne revolucije.

Preidimo k velikim besedam: spreminjali in spremenili smo svet, tako, da smo se zaprli pod zemljo in spremenili sebe. Imamo dokaze! Lahko pokažemo brazgotine, škrbine, šive in zvare, lahko naštejemo izgubljeno, uničeno, odtujeno in v nepojasnjenih okoliščinah izginulo opremo! Lahko s silo privedemo tudi nekaj prič! Naj se začne ekshumacija!

Na teh straneh bodo dosledno nedosledno objavljeni fragmenti vojnega dnevnika, kronika kričave vojne zoper logiko.

In logika se je naveličala nas in je rekla: ne grem se več, naj bo po vaše.

In VEPRAH se je zahihital v pest. In rit je bila njegova pest.

za Veprah spisal dr. rAdio, 2003

Original in Slovenian – switch with “Slovensko” in the menu. Prevod v angleščino – preklopi z „English“ v meniju.

The PersonnelZasedba
Core
Primož Vižintin – korg polysix analog synth, vocals, stuff
Jernej Babnik Romaniuk – electric guitar, screaming escapades, stuff
Gregor Plevnik – electric bass, lexicon sampler, stuff
Adi Jakša – drums & percussive objects, amplified percussion, stuff
Occasional guests
Žiga Golob (#27, #65)
Bruno Vižintin (#58, #65)
Admir Prguda (#59)
Rok U. (#65)
Stane Lah (#65)
Aleš Š. (#70)
Aleš N. (#73)
Blaž Celarec (#115)
Cover design, recording, audio restoration & sound editing
Jernej Babnik Romaniuk
Strategy & concept
Murmur Institute
Links
veprah.bandcamp.com www.murmur.si www.jbr.si