Kronika - Hmly
"Even the dogs are afraid of fogs like these, so don't cry, my dear.
Without us, it won't go anywhere. If we're together, maybe it will pass. Don't cry.”
It was very important to us that this song opened the album. It contains a small cross-section of us and Padina. The bells and choir of the Padina church, the daily barking of dogs, and an excerpt from the chronicle of life in a Pannonian village, read by our dear Janko Hološ - Diego.
If it weren't for "Praslovana," this would have been by far the most difficult song to record. Playing it wasn't the problem, but the arrangement kept eluding us. It had almost ten versions, and in the end, it was reduced to the one we hear on the album - a typical Pannonian landscape.
Kronika - Padina nemá more
Some are born by the blue waters, but that's not us.
Maybe everything would be different, but this song wouldn't exist, and that's a kind of comfort.
It was created over years, searching for its official, final, and most famous version, which it found in January 2023 in Kostolna.
It was a wet and cold Sunday morning. And the song is like that too. Sunday. Solemn, but somehow cold and wet.
The studio version will probably never reach the same recognition as the one from Kostolna, but it was a little easier to record (it was a few degrees warmer in the studio).
It introduces the album on the Padina track and is the first part of the trilogy of "Padina" songs on the album.
And it goes well with every autumn. Like a scene from "Satantango".
"It's a bit sentimental."
Kronika - Anča
"It will be better at home."
If we were in America, this would be 'Carrie'. In Slovenian countries, it's still without fire and telekinesis. Only tragedy remains.
A mismatch of desires and possibilities, pushed by malice. And the tragedy is personal, like a dance.
Our first and still only music video. And the third song on our first album: Anča.
Thank you, Hviezdoslav.
Kronika - Nezobúdzal by som ťa
"Miniature love song. It somehow continues 'Anča' and ends the first part of the album, before the 'local trilogy'.
Created back in 2019, it got its first version at the Hangar session.
Quiet, peaceful, and unobtrusive. Nothing beyond that."
First version filmed live at a Hangar session (not sure what is with the cold that makes us want to film, maybe it is the suffering :D )
Kronika - Praslovan
It wasn't easy for Praslovan, nor for us with him. And it lasted. Both in the studio and afterwards.
A big thank you to Zoran Predin for a wonderful song and for supporting us in recording it."
Kronika - Prázdna je dedina
The song around which the idea to record an album arose. The song that started the theme of migration in our songs.
It inspired the creation of the songs "Padina nemá more" and "Bude všetko dobre".
Vlastimir wrote it during the period of the most massive exodus of people from Padina.
And some stayed.
"That's already a bit too sentimental."
Kronika - Bude všetko dobre
The last one on the album. The last one on this topic. We wanted to wrap it up and leave it behind. It certainly lasted longer than we planned, and it will last a little longer until the LP arrives.
Thank you to everyone who listened to the album, thank you for your comments, for the kind words and occasional criticisms.
If we were to do it again - we would probably do some things differently. But then maybe we wouldn't at all.
And like this - on Sunday on Bandcamp and YouTube, a new song is coming. Even a music video.
I hope you'll love it. It's very much a love song.
It will be a long winter, but everything will be alright.
Disclaimer: so you don't think bil.prag somehow got writing skills overnight :) All the text about the songs is written by Martin Labat (i think i didn't ask :) ) i just translated it. All photos and videos here are taken by me.
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Tomorrow new freezing song. Stay tuned.