Luna (Novi Sad band)
Encyclopedia
Luna was a Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

n and former Yugoslav post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

/gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...

 band from Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....

.

Formed on the ashes of the New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 band La Strada
La Strada (band)
La Strada was a Serbian and former Yugoslav New Wave/alternative rock band from Novi Sad.- New Wave era :The band was formed by Slobodan Tišma also known as "Deda" , a rock veteran and poet, and called it La Strada by the Federico Fellini movie La strada...

 and getting the name by the Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

 film La Luna
La Luna (film)
La Luna, also known as Luna, is a 1979 Italian film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Jill Clayburgh. The film concerns the troubled life of a teenage boy and his relationship with his parents, including an incestuous relationship with his mother.-Plot:Joe is the son of famous opera...

, Luna quickly gained the public's attention and established a cult status. Owing to Marko Brecelj, a former Buldožer
Buldožer
Buldožer was Yugoslav-Slovenian progressive rock band from 1970s and 1980s. They were one of the first bands in communist Yugoslavia that could be considered alternative, and forefathers of the Yugoslav New Wave...

 member, who had approached them after a performance in Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...

, Zoran Bulatović "Bale" (guitar), Slobodan Tišma (vocals) and Ivan Fece "Firchie" (drums) Jasmina Mitrušić "Mina" (keyboards, vocals) got the opportunity to release their debut album. However, their debut and only album Nestvarne stvari
Nestvarne stvari
- Personnel :* Artur — vocals* Balder — guitar, backing vocals* Firchie — drums* Jasmina Mitrušić — synthesizer, backing vocals- Cover versions :...

(Unreal Things) was released after the band disbanded. The album was critically well acclaimed and is considered one of the finest releases of the former Yugoslav rock scene
Popular music in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
SFR Yugoslav pop and rock scene includes the pop and rock music of SFR Yugoslavia , including all their genres and sub-genres. The scene included the constituent republics: SR Slovenia, SR Croatia, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Montenegro, SR Macedonia and SR Serbia and its subunits: SAP Vojvodina...

. Twenty years after the album release, in 2004, the band reunited for a one-off performance at the Novi Sad Exit festival
EXIT (festival)
Exit is an annual summer music festival in the Petrovaradin Fortress of Novi Sad, Serbia. It is staged annually since 2000 and usually lasts four days ....

.

Formation, rise to prominence

During the mid-1981, following a dispute between the band members of the band La Strada
La Strada (band)
La Strada was a Serbian and former Yugoslav New Wave/alternative rock band from Novi Sad.- New Wave era :The band was formed by Slobodan Tišma also known as "Deda" , a rock veteran and poet, and called it La Strada by the Federico Fellini movie La strada...

 and the departure of the bassist Boris Oslovčan "Bora" and guitarist Predrag Ostojić, the band, at the time featuring Slobodan Tišma (guitar, vocals) and Ivan Fece "Firchie" (drums), was joined by the former Pekinška Patka
Pekinška Patka
Pekinška Patka is an eminent Serbian and former Yugoslav punk rock band from Novi Sad. Their debut album, Plitka poezija, released in 1980, is considered the first punk rock album by a band coming from Serbia...

 member Zoran Bulatović "Bale" as the new bassist. At the time, the band was preparing for a three-date mini tour, including Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....

, Pančevo
Pancevo
Pančevo is a city and municipality located in the southern part of Serbian province of Vojvodina, 15 km northeast from Belgrade. In 2002, the city had a total population of 77,087, while municipality of Pančevo had 127,162 inhabitants. It is the administrative center of the South Banat...

 and Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

, organized by the Muzička Omladina concert agency, with the bands Lačni Franz
Lacni Franz
Lačni Franz was a rock band from Slovenia. The band was formed in Maribor in June 1979. Their name, meaning hungry Franz, is a pun on the name of a character from the novel Catch-22, Hungry Joe, and describes hunger for rock music....

, Čista Proza
Čista Proza
Čista Proza was a former Yugoslav New Wave band from Novi Sad, founded by the well-known Serbian producer and sound engineer Milan Ćirić.- History :...

 and Fotomodeli. Despite being well accepted at the performances, the band ceased to exist.

During the late 1981, Zoran Bulatović "Bale" (guitar), Slobodan Tišma (vocals) and Ivan Fece "Firchie" (drums) joined by the former Pekinška Patka member Marinko Vukomanović (bass) formed Luna, choosing the name by the Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

 film La Luna
La Luna (film)
La Luna, also known as Luna, is a 1979 Italian film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Jill Clayburgh. The film concerns the troubled life of a teenage boy and his relationship with his parents, including an incestuous relationship with his mother.-Plot:Joe is the son of famous opera...

. Since the band members were already well-known, the formation of the band caused great interest in the public. The band started writing new material, with Bulatović being responsible for the music writing and arrangement, while Tišma was the band's lyricist. A few days before the band's first public appearance, Vukomanović had left the band, forming his own pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 group Primavera, and was replaced by Jasmina Mitrušić "Mina" (keyboards, vocals).

The lineup had their first live appearance in March 1982 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 at the Novosadski Novi Talas festival (Novi Sad New Wave music
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 festival). After the festival, Luna started performing at numerous Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....

 and Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 venues, establishing itself a cult status and receiving positive reactions from the critics. The journalist Petar Luković in the April 1982 edition of the Duga magazine stated that "Luna is today probably the most mature Novi Sad band from this generation: their music is a strange symbiosis of avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 influences of the alternative music scene and a luster of pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 philosophy, backed with a steady rhythm and striking vocals". Yet another critic, Dragan Kremer, in the December 1982 edition of the Omladinske novine stated that "Luna is the best band we have. Next year either belongs to them, or to nobody else".

In the meantime, in the Radio Novi Sad studios, the band recorded their first demo, featuring the song "Ogledalo lune" ("The Mirror of Luna"), which become a local hit and was often broadcast on the Studio B
RTV Studio B
RTV Studio B, more often called Studio B , is a radio and television broadcaster in Belgrade, Serbia, which was the first broadcast station outside the national electronic media system.-Background:...

 radio station. The demo, along with the La Strada two track demo, a live recording of the song "Metropolis" recorded at the Ben Akiba theatre June 27, 1983, and an entire March 11 performance at the KCM Sonja Marinković surfaced during the late 1980s on the bootleg album Hokej klub Virginitas (Hockey Club Virginitas) by Ding Dong records on compact cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...

 only. During the autumn of 1983, the band went on a tour of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

, performing in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

 and Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...

, and Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

, performing in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

 and Kopar. After the Rijeka performance, the band was approached by a former Buldožer
Buldožer
Buldožer was Yugoslav-Slovenian progressive rock band from 1970s and 1980s. They were one of the first bands in communist Yugoslavia that could be considered alternative, and forefathers of the Yugoslav New Wave...

 member Marko Brecelj, who later took the demo recordings to his former band-mate Boris Bele, one of the head of the Helidon record label.

Debut album recording, breakup

Having returned from the tour, the band entered the Aquarius Studio in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

, where, with the help of sound engineer Đorđe Petrović and producer Saša Habić. As Bulatović later stated in an interview, the band had entered the studio well-rehearsed, with the track-sheets written out and a clearly worked out strategy of the music recording process. The album recording was finished by September 1983 and, at the time, due to a quarrel between Bulatović and Tišma, the latter was expelled from the band. Jasmina Mitrušić followed Tišma and the two went on to reforming La Strada
La Strada (band)
La Strada was a Serbian and former Yugoslav New Wave/alternative rock band from Novi Sad.- New Wave era :The band was formed by Slobodan Tišma also known as "Deda" , a rock veteran and poet, and called it La Strada by the Federico Fellini movie La strada...

 during the following year. Bulatović went to serve the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...

 after which he joined Imperium of Jazz and Fece joined Katarina II.

The debut album Nestvarne stvari
Nestvarne stvari
- Personnel :* Artur — vocals* Balder — guitar, backing vocals* Firchie — drums* Jasmina Mitrušić — synthesizer, backing vocals- Cover versions :...

(Unreal Things), was released by Helidon during the spring of 1984 and due to the band disbandment and the fact that there would be no album promotion it was released in 920 copies only. The album was marked by the poetic vignettes like "Lambo", "Okean" ("The Ocean", featuring lead vocals by Mitrušić), "Amazon" ("Amazonia
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...

"), and "Ogledalo Lune" ("The Mirror of Luna") with a consistent minimalist form. On the album Tišma signed himself as Artur, the pseudonym he started using under the influence of the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...

. After the album release, the Rock magazine voted Nestvarne stvari the seventh best album of the year 1984, the band also got the award Sedam Sektetara SKOJ-a in Zagreb, and the album was acclaimed by the critics as one of best debut releases in former Yugoslavia.

Post-breakup, brief reformation

With the reformed La Strada
La Strada (band)
La Strada was a Serbian and former Yugoslav New Wave/alternative rock band from Novi Sad.- New Wave era :The band was formed by Slobodan Tišma also known as "Deda" , a rock veteran and poet, and called it La Strada by the Federico Fellini movie La strada...

, Tišma and Mitrušić released the album La strada
La strada (album)
- Personnel :* Daniel Stari — bass* Robert Radić — drums* Žolt Horvat — guitar* Jasmina Mitrušić — keyboards* Slobodan Tišma — vocals* Rex Ilusivii — producer* Jan Šaš — sound engineer* Boro Popržan — artwork by [design]- Cover versions :...

in 1987, before disbanding in 1989. After La Strada
La Strada (band)
La Strada was a Serbian and former Yugoslav New Wave/alternative rock band from Novi Sad.- New Wave era :The band was formed by Slobodan Tišma also known as "Deda" , a rock veteran and poet, and called it La Strada by the Federico Fellini movie La strada...

 disbanded, Tišma quit his musical career and released two poetry books, the first Mairizmi (Manirisms) in 1995, and Vrt kao to (Garden Like That) in 1997. A collection of his texts released in literary magazines during the late 1980s and early 1990s were published as Blues Diary - Pitoma religiozna razmišljanja (Blues Diary - Cultivated Religious Meditations) in 2001 and he published an autobiographical novel Urvidek in 2005. He also wrote a libretto for a multimedia pseudo-opera Kralj šume (King of the Forest) by Andraš Urban. Mitrušić finished the Musical Academy studies and moved to Italy. In 2001 she participated the Pesme iznad istoka i zapada
Pesme iznad istoka i zapada
-Personnel:*Dragutin Aleksandrić - guitar*Nebojša Antonijević - guitar*Julija Boroš - vocals*Zoran Cvetković - trumpet*Nebojša Čanković - guitar*Dragan Ćurković - guitar*Marko Dacić - bass guitar...

(Songs Above the East and the West), featuring Serbian rock
Serbian rock
Serbian rock is the rock music scene of Serbia. During the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, while Serbia was a constituent republic of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbian rock scene was a part of the SFR Yugoslav rock scene....

 musicians performing music to the poems by Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, with the written music and arrangement for the poem "Vladaj, Bože" ("Reign, God").

In 1992 Bulatović, accompanied by former La Strada and, at the time, Obojeni Program
Obojeni Program
Obojeni Program is a Serbian alternative rock band from Novi Sad. The band are pioneers of the Serbian alternative rock scene. The band is also famous for giving strange names to their albums, which is explained by the fact that the first letters of all the studio albums form an acronym of their...

 members Robert Radić "Robi" (drums) and Zoran Lekić "Leki" (bass guitar), shortly reformed Luna, but the band dissolved soon after due to his moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The material recorded during the short period was released fourteen years later as Bulatović's solo album Summer Without Syphilis and it featured Bulatović on lead vocals and guitar. In New York, with the former Igra Staklenih Perli
Igra Staklenih Perli
Igra Staklenih Perli were a former Yugoslav progressive/psychedelic rock band from Belgrade.- 1976-1985:...

 bassist Draško Nikodijević "Dracula", he recorded the album ...And The Gods Made Wars as White Rabbit Cult, released in 1999, featuring sampled material related to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The following year, he remastered the album Nestvarne stvari
Nestvarne stvari
- Personnel :* Artur — vocals* Balder — guitar, backing vocals* Firchie — drums* Jasmina Mitrušić — synthesizer, backing vocals- Cover versions :...

, featuring an alternate album cover, and released it through his own independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 Fatamalanga Records. In 2010, Bulatović and Vukomanović reunited with their former Pekinška Patka
Pekinška Patka
Pekinška Patka is an eminent Serbian and former Yugoslav punk rock band from Novi Sad. Their debut album, Plitka poezija, released in 1980, is considered the first punk rock album by a band coming from Serbia...

 bandmates, releasing a comeback single and announcing the release of a cover album
Cover Album
-Tracklisting:#Misono to Utaou! Animedley I # #...

.

Fece joined Katarina II which soon after evolved into Ekatarina Velika
Ekatarina Velika
Ekatarina Velika , sometimes referred to as EKV for short, was a Serbian and former Yugoslav rock group from Belgrade, being one of the most successful and influential music acts coming out of former Yugoslavia....

, with whom he recorded their eponymous debut album
Ekatarina Velika (album)
Ekatarina Velika is the second studio album by the Serbian rock band Ekatarina Velika, released in 1985. Before this release, the band was called Katarina II, and had released a self-titled album in 1984....

, after which he went to serve the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...

, after which he joined Laboratorija Zvuka
Laboratorija Zvuka
Laboratorija Zvuka , sometimes credited as Laboratorija only, was a Serbian and former Yugoslav rock band...

. In 1988 he had also promptly rejoined Ekatarina Velika on the tour promoting the album Ljubav (Love), shortly replacing Srđan Todorović before moving away to New York City in April 1988. Shortly before leaving, he had patented a drum set with an alternative way of drum tuning. In New York, Bulatović, Nikodijević and former Električni Orgazam
Električni Orgazam
Električni Orgazam is a Serbian rock band from Belgrade. Originally starting as a combination of New Wave, punk rock and post-punk, the band later slowly changed their style, becoming a mainstream rock act.- New Wave years :...

 keyboard player Ljubomir Đukić and former Bezobrazno Zeleno
Bezobrazno Zeleno
Bezobrazno Zeleno were a former Yugoslav New Wave/pop rock band from Belgrade. The band was notable as the participant of the Artistička radna akcija project as well as for their later works....

 member Vojislavom Bešićem "Beške" he formed a supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....

 Collateral Damage, but the band did not release any material. The funds earned on the performances, the band used to buy medications which were sent to the Novi Sad Children's Hospital. In 2007 he released the album EKV Revisited featuring the rerecorded material of the Ekatarina Velika songs, featuring only the original vocal tracks.

One-off reunion

On July The default Luna lineup performed a reunion show at the 2004 EXIT festival. They performed all of the tracks from Nestvarne stvari and three tracks from the band's first demo which did not appear on the album.

External links

  • Luna at Myspace
    Myspace
    Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

  • Luna at Youtube
    YouTube
    YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

  • Luna at Discogs
    Discogs
    Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...

  • Luna at Rateyourmusic
  • Luna at Last.fm
    Last.fm
    Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....

  • Luna at B92.fm
    B92
    B92 is a radio and television broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade, Serbia. The network's key demographic is chiefly urban and young audience. Its programs, including the news cover topics with fairly liberal political painted attitudes...

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