Kladivo Konj In Voda – Vidov Ples (PGP RTB 1983)

Kladivo Konj In Voda (which means ‘Hammer, Horse and Water’) was an obscure folk rock band from Slovenia, former Yugoslavia. They played, at least on this album (their second), a very calm and utterly beautiful type of folk music. This is demonstrated very well already in the excellent opening track, ‘Razmišljanje’. The dramatic melody is to die for, and it doesn’t exactly get any less heavenly when it’s sung by a vocalist like Damjana Golavšek. She had a distinctive voice that really makes you stop and listen. The band also had a male vocalist, Miroslav Videčnik Sine, who excellently complements Golavšek. The album consists of 14 short songs, and they are all memorable. Yes, the songwriting is incredibly strong. Even though this album is very vocal oriented, you’ll also hear some excellent violin playing, keyboards, mandolin and of course acoustic guitars. Most of the songs are slow and melancholy, but there are also some uptempo and cheerful numbers here, including ‘Večerna Poskočnica’ and the striking closer ‘Na Poti Domov’. This is a truly beautiful album that should be heard by many many more people, but I guess that will never happen. Its rareness on LP is almost legendary, but it was fortunately reissued on cd on Dezela in 2006. Oh by the way, Kladivo Konj In Voda actually reunited in the mid 90’s (this time with electric sound, apparently) and lasted until the late 90’s. They also released one album then, called ‘Na Cesti’. I haven’t heard that one – and not their debut ‘Zorenje’ either. The latter was released in 1981 only on cassette, and that album is of course completely impossible to find these days. But I would guess that ‘Vidov Ples’ is the one album to get from this band, as melancholy folk music simply cannot get any stronger or more beautiful than this. Highly recommended to ALL folk lovers!