Over Fields and Mountains

Over Fields and Mountains is one of those ‘lost’ or ‘outsider’ records that contains the sound of surprise. The late Branko Mataja was born in Croatia, grew up in Belgrade, worked as slave labour for the Nazis during World War II, lived briefly in a displaced persons camp in Yorkshire, eventually settling in California. Here he made and modified electric guitars, playing such for his own enjoyment. So much that he made two self-released albums – one in the 1970s, the other in the 1980s – of himself doing so. These he used to gift to friends and customers, never aiming for them to receive any further attention. Mataja died in 2000 and David Jerkovich, a US musician, looking to learn more about Yugoslav-era music, found Mataja’s first album not long after. What a find!

The guitar is not an instrument that is favoured in Croat/Serb folk music, yet it seems Mataja used the folk songs of his childhood as a blueprint for his own experiments. He utilised sliding pickups, a spinning Leslie speaker and experiments with tape to create a music that is extremely atmospheric, haunting even. There are no vocals, no other instruments, just electric guitar. Yet Over Fields and Mountains – which gathers both of Mataja’s albums – is one of the most striking musical creations I have heard this decade.