Macedonia Dreaming

As close, tight-knit and homogenised as the worldwide music scene is these days, there are still pockets of unique sounds around the globe, a hidden secret sheltered by geography, political climate or ethnic musical influences. Leb i sol is one of those bands. They'd fared well outside their native Macedonia when they played around the world at CBGB's in New York and Sheppard's Bush in London. In Macedonia, they would regularly fill stadiums. But after 20 years, the band split in 1996 and went their separate solo ways. For bassist Bodan Arsovski, that meant delving deeper into Macedonian mythology and tradition, blending jazz and prog rock into his compositions. Leb i sol reformed for a 30^th anniversary tour a decade later and rediscovered the chemistry. “At that time I had ideas that had to be carried out by Leb i sol,” Arsovski says. “One part of the band did not have courage to carry on with the story and those that were left knew that they would be dealing with very hard work, but with great support from the producer who believed sincerely in us.”

The reformed group found themselves in a very different political climate in Macedonia than the one they'd played in for decades. Those changes influenced things off-stage more than on. “In 36 years Leb i sol covered two political systems – socialist and democratic. The political order itself does not influence the music of Leb i sol, but the transition into democracy resulted in problems related to our work.” Arsovski describes EU borders being one reason concerts had to be cancelled. “On top of that, there were also the wars going on around us, and all that was in compliance with the 10-years long break of Leb i sol.” Part of the success of Leb i sol was their deep connection with Macedonian music traditions. The rhythms and scales are taken from tradition, but infused with jazz and rock to create the Leb i sol sound. “For millennia, civilizations from East and West have been mixing with each other and, in a way, it influenced the material and the spiritual life of the people. It is inscribed in our code,” he explains. “I believe that all those influences at the end provide a new quality of seeing the reality and the music is an ideal way for expressing that.”

Though music was all around him, Arsovski's passion for music came from the British Invasion. Limited access to a radio meant he paid attention to what he heard. “My mother, father and even my grandfather often used to sing songs,” Arsovski says, “but the true motivation was in the '60s when I used to buy records by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and the others. But the editions were very rare. At that time, at night, I would sometimes catch a new song on Radio Luxembourg, which was very important for us back then. Since it was not possible to record, the only thing that was left for us was to remember as much as possible from one listening of the song. Of course, when one could not remember everything in the head, different own versions of the original appeared. Those were very creative moments. Maybe that inspired the idea to make my own music.”

The reformed Leb i sol are modified from the original line-up. The current drummer, Mihail Parushev, was born the year Leb i sol released their first album. “The band's sound was defined at the end of the '70s,” Arsovski says. “Numerous musicians participated in Leb i sol, [who] also made their solo careers after. In addition to learning for music and business, the creativity of each one of them introduced something new in the music of Leb i sol.”