"Always Running"

It was in the late 90's, when our percussion tribe The Stroj began with their work. Last year they published (by their own publihshing company Strojmusic) their first album, Ventilator. The project took a lot of public attention, considering many awards, prizes and nominations in the year 2000. We talked to the first engine of the machine, mr. Primož Oberžan.

Recently you received Golden bird award for your music opus. I'm pointing towards, that - at least in Europe - percussion is mostly seen as a part of larger music settings, not as main attribute of composition.

"Agree. Fact, that percussion is taken only as a music groundwork, is the matter of perception, comprehension of the person. On the other hand, it's the matter of the artist, and his concept. While we don't use any other instruments exept drums, we do see it as music. Besides, we did some research, and those basic rhytmical sounds are getting some wide ranging dimensions. We use different kind of pipes and metal plates. Right now we're looking for sounds, that are produced mechanically, but they should not be as rhytmically orientated, as the main part of our instrumentarium."

That's how - on the first sight - limited inventory makes everything possible?

"We'are talking abot certain contradiction, established by men's own limitations. If you set your concept very sharp, that is in our case "limited inventory", and if you know how to listen to it, you can allways find something new, by switching to new forms, to new expression possibilities for example. We don't feel bounded or limited because of unpretentius complet of music instruments we use. There range of sounds is wide enough, so that we don't feel deprived in any way. On the contarary. More and more I'm surprised, while keeping things tough, we're getting more sense for the deepnes of the matter. These discoveries, even after 5-6 years working with The Stroj, are as thrilling to me as they were the first time. As matter of a fact, I'm getting more and more touch.There are allways new sounds, that can be transformed in some kind of shape, that others can hear too."

What about adding other instruments, human voice?

"Absolutely. We are always interested. And we believe, that the results would be impressive. But we try not to oversaturate our song's arrangements, and finally sound like many other bands. We don't want to enter things, that are successfully developed by others. By the way, we just renovated our homepage www.thestroj.com, and we're going to upload some samples of our recordings, to stimulate visitors to do some remixes. I'm sure we make many interesting sound patterns, that could be easily used in modern dance production."

You just mentioned dance. Are your intending to cooperate with some dance or theatre group?

"That is something, I can easily imagine. But, as far as I know, there was no interest from groups from Slovenia. Our origin is to produce movement, that produces sound. And when we're talking about dancing on the recorded music, things are all the way around, we have sound that produces movement."

Your community is known as tribal. Places like Africa, from where the percussion groups are originating, are probably not the right association for that word. There's probably more in urban sense of the word, as we recognize it from urban subcultures.

"Yes. We meant it that way. Sadly, since our first album Ventilator, we have to deal with plenty media shallowness. They mess The Stroj with other estrada scene, which is far from where we see us. Our work is specific, and has many extensions, like organisation, logistics, promotion and finally everlasting search for new instruments and developement of tribal symbols. Besides, the size of the group demans some kind of gathering ground, some uniting element. Quiet consensus that gathers bands togheter, is different in our group. Our product is some kind of survival strategy in in this enviroment. We sent us on mission, and no one will complete it for us. If you do it that way, personal bounds become very thight and the responsibility from the individual towards the community rises. Our music is kind of reminscence of urban enviroment noises, that are nowadays becoming more and more annoying. If you can imagine it as a music, it becomes somehow tolerable. Since I see noise this way, I found new, exciting acoustic areas. Actually, every music creation, is putting sound in some kind of sense, or giving meanings to some sound complexes."

So, the group has its firm core?

"Yes. There were two-three replacements, which is negligible for a band with ten members. But, our band can not bare quick and often changes. Each new member needs time, no matter of his music knowledge, approximately one year, to fit in and carry on our activity. There are many specific movements, so common drumming knowledge is no big help. That way, each loss is a big loss, and we desperately seek for replacements. A few months ago, we recruited a new member, and at the moment he is carefully introduced in things."

If we say tribal, we imagine initiations, rituals for new members.

"We talked a lot about that. Thinking, that every rookie should pass an initiation. But ideas are mostly so bizzare, that would probably cause additional trouble finding new members. I think it's shocking enough for everyone, who first spottetd The Stroj on the TV, and then he suddenly gets a chance to become an insider. There is a lot of carryinig heavy iron objects around, a lot of work getting our construction together and, let's not forget, unloading our van in the middle of the night. 90% of the time for each concert is spent that way. That's what's less interesting and defenitely less exciting, than things seen by the audience when the lights go on. One more reason, why it is hard to find the right person for the job."

Logistics that you mentioned, is somehow determining places for your concerts. There is a stone-pit in your hometown Laško, the choice for Ljubljana is traditionally the Rail museum of Slovenia. What about other places?

"We're still searching aruond the country. We make a lot of contact with different people, and collecting information about such places, abandoned structures, where our concerts could be realised. Especially sceneries, that initially weren't ment for musical activity.We are capable of producing two such projects per year. Rail museum in spring and Laško in late summer. The rest is the matter of local organizers enthusiasm. We try and help them with tips and tricks, but I'm afraid that's all we can do."

According to that, you perform surprisingly a lot. Like guests on other musician projects, advertisements etc.

"We're surprised as well. Half of our appearance is made exclusively for closed-type arrangements, for companies and so. Thus we make enough money to keep our group going. The other part are normal concerts. We wish to expand this second part, since they are much more exciting. It is somehow different to play 15 minutes or a good hour, which demands much more concentration. The truth is, Slovenia is small, and the concert organizers are a bit sceptical. Mostly they're scared from all the technical demands, we need for quality performance."

You prepared some new songs, along with some new instruments for the recent concert in the Rail museum. Is that a sign for a new record coming?

"During the winter training, we made a few new songs, which we introduced there. Some of them will be, with possible modifications, recorded for our next album. The second part of preparations for studio recording is of more conceptional nature. We're looking for sounds, suitable to carry a composition. And when in studio, we always practice a bit different approach, than for live performing. I'm fascinated with making a sountrack for a non-existing movie. Expecting, that sounds used in our songs will be strong enough for the public to feel an association, some visual effect. We're in a research phase right now, which sounds to use, to build compositions dynamically and dramaturgically enough. With that approach, you don't deal with the rhythm, till the appropriate machine noises are recorded and the composition is prepared. Then you add some rhythms, that make the song more consistent. You just go with the sound."

On one hand, your music impulses visual imagination, like a soundtrack for an imaginary movie. On the other, The Stroj is something to be seen, not just listened. Voice-only media mutilates notion about you. What about video?

"We did shot two videospots so far. Both were made of our live concert footage. The first one was presented last year, the second one was just finished. Both are trying to conjure the feeling of being in audience, which is partly impossible. It's time for more story, because we don't want to go the same way for the third time. The theme for the next video very much depends on the content of our new recordings. I see it as a visualisation of an individual musical story from album."

You received an invitation from a French organisation, to attend a certain Mediterranean cruising, and of course perform aboard the ship.

"It's the Leda Atomica Music organisation, who leased an old Romanian military vessel, to board different artists, and preparing some cultural events during the cruise. One part is musical creativeness. We'll probably embark by the end of July in Koper, and the next two days on the way to Split we'll be preparing our concert. Then we'll return home."

Pitty, you should leave so soon. Could be interesting for you to meet some Turkish, Egyptian, Marokese and other Mediterranean nations, to learn about oriental, arabic and other exotic rhythms.

"We thought about that. But we got to stay firmly on the ground. First, the project is based on constant changing of artists, and second, we don't really have the time, to spend a month or two on cruising, because we got a lot of concerts to do at the time. But, we'd certainly be glad to perform someday on the south Mediterrenean coast or northern Africa. I wonder how our appearance would function in a somehow different cultural context."

Milko Poštrak