Človek ni Zver

War never changes, so they say, and this collection of songs assembled around the theme of war and its victims from Slovenian art-folk ensemble Katalena seems to agree. Much South Slav literature alludes to its protagonists fighting in far-distant lands for yet more distant emperors – Crnjanski and Selimović come to mind – and the songs here often take the perspective of the recruit, willing or unwilling, and sometimes those left behind. The lyrics hark back to those bygone wars. Yet Slovenia is still home to refugees from a war on its doorstep, and the ironic distancing that the folk lyrics create is intensified by the infusion of contemporary styles into the musical settings, with rock rhythms and echoes of jazz rubbing shoulders with simple, almost naive melodies.

The album opens with a mutant recruiting song, its brassy optimism turning to weariness and dismay, and the mood of the album veers between grimness and the cautious hope of ‘Spjevaj Nama, Katica’. The final song, ‘Kje So Tiste Stezice’, seems an exhausted return to the homeland, leaving it unclear whether the soldier has truly come home or is merely dreaming as he dies. Človek ni Zver is a fine and thoughtful album.