A concert promotion of the poetry collection "Language for Two" by Pijan Slavej will be held on September 14 at "Cresha Bar" in Skopje, and we had the conversation with Branislav Nikolov at the height of the intensive concert activity of the "Foltin" group.

The series of poetry collections "Crevetism and Horizontal", "Hearts" and "Polygraph" by Pjan Slavej is continued with the new book "Language for Two". The promotion of the book will be complemented by a concert performance by the band "Pian Slavej". All this happens during a period when the band "Foltin", where Branislav Nikolov is a vocalist and songwriter, has intensive concert performances in several cities across the country.

In the conversation with Branislav Nikolov, we touch on the topics related to the poetic expression, the specifics of Pijan Slavej and the constancy of the concert activities of "Foltin".

Where, with whom and how is the promotion of the new book "Language for Two" planned?

– The first thought that comes to me on this question is that as much as I am consistent with my author's sensibility and identity, I am traditionally attached, through all four editions, to my publisher, Dejan Trajkoski, and to his publishing house "Prozart Media".

But that partly gives the answer to "with whom?", therefore, with great pleasure, I will say that the members of the band "Drunk Slavey" will be with me, because this time we decided to do a concert promotion, as befits . It's kind of unnatural for me to post lyrics and not make them sound like songs and gigs. And when I'm talking about keeping traditions, here's a total of four promotions in "Cresha Bar" - two collections of poetry and two albums of "Foltin". All four were whistlers. That's the place. We are like that too.

Is there any numerology in the fact that a Drunken Nightingale book appears every two years?

- There is nothing with numerology, at least not on a conscious level, but the time frame is not accidental. Two years to drain and recharge the batteries for feeling and writing. And of course, we are not talking about any routine or iron discipline, setting deadlines, strategies, etc. It's just my inner pace for this format. From the infatuation and oversaturation with the previous one, through the gradual liking, then the obsessive deepening, to the final completion of a cycle. Always exactly two years. But I know it's time to end that streak as well.

The texts in the books can be read as well as sung. With what feelings were they written, and with what intentions were they published?

– I am addicted to melodiousness and rhythmicity in the verse. And that doesn't always lead me to concrete musical realization. Sometimes the song should and must remain unsung, if it doesn't ask you to sing it. And she who asks, she too must go through the strict laws and rules in adjustment.

On the other hand, it happens that I write a song that I feel in its infancy as material for a song. In that case, the song grows together with the music in a spiral entanglement and fusion. I'm a songwriter, and I'm more of a songwriter, and I shyly and cautiously accept myself as a poet.

However, the poem, whether sung or spoken, sets the words into a higher-order molecular structure. The poem is an encoded truth. Outside of the poem, the poem does not exist.

The musical basis is additionally given to the two albums (EPs) of Pjan Slavej. In what conjunction are books and albums?

– As for Pjan Slavej, first are the books, then the albums. Well, after all, maybe those two fires are burning from one spark. I'll say it again, music and words love each other endlessly. It is the love that has shed the most liberating tears in the world.

There is also a natural connection between Drunken Slavey and "Faultin". Could it be said that the Nightingale is the younger brother of "Faultin", or does the relationship span other dimensions?

- I have already answered this question several times. And I don't know if I answered it. The heart of one group is different from the other. Although the compositions have become almost equal over time, however, as there is a similarity, there is also a difference. And I would not try to explain it artificially. I know it's provocative - that almost the same people are in two different groups, with two different names and programs, but, finally, that equality in the composition can show even more clearly the essential difference in the idea. And so it is very important to say that "Drunken Nightingale" did not at all arise from some kind of crisis of the good old "Faultin". We go forward hand in hand.

You had several concerts with "Foltin" only in August, and the echoes from the concert in Bitola are "a real cultural bomb from Bitola". What actually happened at the concert, at home in front of his own?

- In front of your own people, it is the hardest, but if you have the audience of your dreams in those of your own, then it is easy and fast. And we were surprised how the whole event turned out. It wasn't just our concert with support groups that are there to technically warm up the crowd. From the very beginning, there was the impression that something bigger was happening. The sound was impeccable, and the three young bands from Bitola (I have to mention: "Tsar Von Time", "Sioto Jazz" and "Korozia"), made us feel as if we were present at a very important festival of Bitola's city cultural scene.

To cut a long story short, it was a pleasure for us to be among ourselves and in front of our own. We organized the concert ourselves, from lighting the first light, to extinguishing the last, and all the hundreds of important and less important activities in between. But that's a topic for a whole other interview.

Music albums, music for theater and film, a specific and unconventional amalgam of genres, concerts in the form of dance performances... how "Faultin" experience their maturity?

- As a younger colleague said: "Desolated youth, no way to pass!" Indeed, art cannot be without creativity. And the peak of creativity is in youth. Then the worlds are created, which later, in the mature age, are lived and enjoyed. I recently watched an older concert of ours, from the "Lo-lee-ta-too" album phase ("Lolitatu") when we called ourselves a "pseudo-immigrant cabaret", and then I turned to a newer one, from a few years ago, and got that one again characteristic impression that "Foltin" is a band with strong and thorough transformations and metamorphoses. I am not talking about the physical changes of aging, but about the dynamics in the life of a collective spirit, about its colorful journey from birth to where we are today. And here, in these almost thirty years, we have never stopped. And when I stop to look far back... it's like yesterday!

Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the band's first appearance. What feelings does looking at the past bring and what plans do you make for the future?

– "Foltin" has a double calculation of the date of formation. One starts from the first smaller activities, when we were doing the performances with "ready-made" percussion instruments and already collecting the material for the first album, and that is throughout 1995, and the other one that I prefer to use, which is the first independent concert, in Herakleia, on August 16, 1996. According to that calculation, with the above-mentioned concert in Bitola, we quietly celebrated 28 years. We are saving the fireworks for August 16, 2026. The plans for the future are simple – to breathe, play, sing.

What kind of spiritual and creative energy has kept you together for so long in the band?

– I don't know a concrete answer to that question. I just know that you have to really love what you do. Often it is not easy, but in the end, the satisfaction and the feeling of gratitude remain. However, I must say, and I don't want this to be taken as a trite phrase, the ultimate force that keeps the artist alive and inspires him is the one that spirals between him and someone on the other side, to whom he surrenders his soul. , and she, ennobled and changed by the recipient's feelings, returns to him again, with potent energy and the will to give more. In other words, it is the audience that largely determines shortness or longevity.

On shorter distances, what awaits you in this period until the end of this year?

- In the spring, we mostly played with "Pjan Slavej", this summer we did several concerts with "Foltin". So, after the nightingale spring and the Foltin summer, comes autumn woven from both. And you, wherever is convenient for you, go ahead.

(The interview was published in "Kulturen Pechat" number 247, in the print edition of the newspaper "Sloboden Pechat" on 14-15.09.2024)