The Stroj
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
TRIBE
The name of urban tribe THE STROY comes from the Slovenian word ‘stroj’ which means ‘machine’. Pronounced together with ‘the’, we get ‘destroy’, therefore THE STROY is a pun, playing with two meanings: machine and destruction. THE STROY story has begun in 1997, when a group of percussionists, craftsmen, artists and enthusiasts from Laško, Slovenia, first realized the idea of a huge mechanical sound machine that should sound like an articulated noise orchestra, driven by hypnotic rhythms and powered with their bodily energy. Fanatic enthusiasm had fulfilled their vision of how to research and develop their sonic totem – STROY - while articulating their unique sound language. THE STROY combines powerful and complex rhythms with extraordinary ‘handmade’ noises, astonishing sounds of selfmade blowing and string instruments together with spectacular lightning, glass walking with dangerous pyrotechnic and heavy tools of the past, all in relation with high technologies of the future. Their music brings us unique and futuristic sound, an exciting mixture of industrial, techno, rock, ethnic and jazz influences, played and performed with heavy, rusty and strange looking instruments and ‘noisers’. The sound of the machine is upgraded with extraordinary electronic effects and sound manipulations by their producer and mixman Aldo Ivančič. In a decade of their existence and resistance, THE STROY has taken part in many important festivals across Europe and Asia (Big Torino 2000, EXPO 2000, BBC Music Live 2002, Stockton Riverside Festival '03 & '05, Singapore Art Festival 2005...) and gained the reputation of being one of the most powerful, innovative and breath taking performing groups of today.
AESTHETIC
Musical approach and sound explorations of THE STROY collective is developing major musical principles of the avantgardes in last hundred years from Luigi Russolo and his noise experiments with 'intonarumori', new musical concepts of John Cage and music concrete, to the industrial rock bands like Einsturzende Neubauten, Les Tambours du Bronx, Laibach and others. On the other hand, THE STROY follows the fundamental and traditional playing techniques, where sound is always produced with motoric action toward specific 'material' instrument or an object, so the basic root of THE STROY sound grows from vibrations of different materials and they call it 'material music' . In a booklet of their latest CD 'The Zone' (2006) they wrote:
“We explore the sonority of material and restore the materiality of sound. Material music transforms the instinct into a force, and the force into vibration. Hammer blows are inscribed in the beaten steel. Each of them leaves an imprint as a dumb witness of vibration – the blow has released it from materiality. Material music researches and listens. It trusts in the unconscious and explores according to the principle: ‘I do not know what I search for, but I know that I will find it.’
Dumps, abandoned factories, blind railway tracks, rusted machines, intact dust, smell of the old, objects with weight …The world is dirty and every attempt to clean it generates nothing but more dirt. We are not interested in a clean and orderly world, but rather in the beauty of waste and the poetics of refuse.
The sound is carved. The material vibrates. Vibration is the spirit of the material. The world vibrates, pulsates and resounds. Creating vibration and setting up the rhythm. All this is music.”
CREW
Recent:
Primož Oberžan – Loyz
Jurij Šuhel – Jorge
Aleksij Kobal - Alex Contrain
Črt Lipovšek – Pihušek
Dare Hriberšek – Biddonne
Gregor Brvar – Grexon
Matjaž Madjar – Magi
Sonja Dernjač – Stroyna
Sašo Kotnik – Vinkl
Bojan Krhlanko – Boyanov
Janez Levec - Johnny Kickers
Miha Markošek – Mihaylo
Aldo Ivančič - DJ Aldo
Ex:
Aljaž Cestnik
Andrej Krašek
Uroš Srpčič
Rok Deželak
Sergej Dobovšek
Dare Gozdnikar
Leon Vavričuk
Collaborators:
Loris Vižintin- lightning equipment and light design
Kristjan – Ridio – light programming
Lea Oberžan – communication and PR assistance
Matjaž Šneberger – transport, handyman
Cym – web design and webmistress
Robert Čop – haloman & web advisor
DISCOGRAPHY
Ventilator (StrojMusic 1999)
Gremo! (StrojMusic 2002)
Cona / The Zone (StrojMusic 2006)
PROJECTS
THE STROY is probably most famous by their special events and big scale productions in extraordinary locations such as the mines, stone-pits, abandoned factories, large vehicles and high buildings. Those live events, empowered with magic lightning and astonishing pyrotechnical effects, acquire potent dimensions of the spectacles and the power of modern urban rituals: BAZA (The Base), stone-pit Rečica pri Laškem (Slovenia) 1998 After the first performance at this venue, where nobody had ever performed before, in the summer of 1997, the second in series of their productions was held in stone-pit Rečica near Laško, Slovenia. Project ‘The Base’ was held together with pyrotechnic group ‘Fire Sculptures’ from Metelkova, Ljubljana. Although yet in a smaller scale, this performance is mostly remembered as very dangerous with lots of fire and heavy smoke.
SILA 00 (The Force 00), stone-pit Rečica pri Laškem (Slovenia) 2000
THE STROY crew came back to stone-pit Rečica pri Laškem in August 2000 to construct and build up a completely new Machine, this huge 10 meters wide and 8 meters high rig. When new machine was finished, THE STROY celebrated the rise of their new totem with a spectacular performance in front of a few thousand enthusiastic people. This dangerous challenge was shot by national TV as a part of a documentary about THE STROY.
RAILWAY MUSEUM, Ljubljana (Slovenia) 2000
For the promotion of their first album ‘Ventilator’, THE STROJ found a new venue for their unique events. They performed in Railway Museum for the first time in March 2000. This place together with industrial zone and abandoned trains nearby inspired the members of the group for many further years, so they came back several times in next few years. POGON/DRIVE 01, stone-pit Rečica pri Laškem (Slovenia) 2001 THE STORY’s last gig in a series of spectacles in stone-pit Rečica was held in August 2001. The guys have pushed the risk to the limit when they burnt 500 liters of burning gasoline behind them while performing. The heat wave pushed few thousand people one meter back in less than a second. Witnesses of this event still claim this has been the most exciting performance of THE STROY so far.
STROYEBUS, (Slovenia) 2002
In the beginning of 2002 THE STROY got an old city bus which they rebuilt in an apocalyptic looking vehicle with all their instruments, sound system and autonomous power supply. THE STROY has made few performances with this more than 15 meters long vehicle that year, before they cut it into pieces and dragged the remains to the junk yard. Most of folks have memorized their performance with STROYEBUS on Biker’s Weekend in Lendava, Slovenia, in June 2002. BBC Music Live, Leeds (United Kingdom) 2002 THE STROJ visited England for the first time in June 2002, when they held performance on BBC Music Live in Leeds. Their huge machine was installed in front of the City House, so it made fantastic scenery and screen for their lightning and pyrotechnic effects which followed this spectacular event.
GREMO! (LET’S GO), Railway Museum, Ljubljana (Slovenia) 2002
Their first return to Railway Museum was a big concert in December 2002, when their second album ‘Gremo!’ (Let’s Go!) was released. Another in series of unforgettable events and machine transformations.
SLADARNA, Laško (Slovenia) 2004
During the big summer festival ‘Pivo in cvetje’ (‘Beer and Flowers’) in their hometown Laško, THE STROJ got a chance for another spectacular event: they managed to build specially designed machine on the top of the local brewery, the highest building in town and the sound system was pulled up with the crane so that the whole town was supplied with the sound system. This loud performance with a spectacular pyrotechnic and light effects projected on the walls of the building under their feet, was experienced with about 40.000 people.
TAZ - TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE
Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana (Slovenia) 2004 Production ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’, inspired by the writings of Hakim Bey, has been carefully prepared for 5 months together with Aldo Ivančič (music and sound effects), choreographer Matej Kejžar and 5 dancers. The premiere of this co-production with Exodos and Cankarjev dom was in Cankarjev dom in October 2004.
SINGAPORE ART FESTIVAL 2005
THE STROJ visited Asia for the first time in the summer of 2005, when they were invited by their government to take part on Singapore Art Festival. THE STROJ had to transport almost 5 tons of equipment to Singapore and it was very exciting to see that dirty and rusty machine in the heart of that sterile state, where even the chewing gum is prohibited. The machine had started to rust even more in that humid climate, the crew was beating the sweat out and 30.000 people in three open air events were completely shocked and amazed.
CONA/THE ZONE, Railway Museum, Ljubljana (Slovenia) 2006
The official release of THE STROY’s last album ‘Cona/The Zone’ was followed with another production at the Railway Museum. For the first and last time THE STROJ presented the Cistern-carriage, an instrument with 15 tons of weight, made of rebuilt cistern carriage, that they have been developing for several years. The concert, homonymously named - with the album, got excellent reviews and enthusiastic reactions of the public, as one of the most exciting and innovative Slovenian music groups of all times.
TV PRODUCTION
‘SATURDAY NIGHT’ - Performance in ex Dekorativna spinery, Laško (Slovenia) 1999
This performance was specially prepared for National TV show ‘Saturday Night’ in abandoned spinery Dekorativna Laško and produced in co-production with Television Slovenia. Intro of this concert was performed together with didgeridoo players ‘Uluru’ and there was also an exclusive featuring of Siniša Hranjec (ex IN4S, Wreck) on electric guitar in composition ‘Have A Noise Time’. Director: Njegoš Maravić ‘SILA’ documentary, TV Slovenia 2000
In August 2000 TV Slovenija shot a documentary TV film about constructing THE STROY’s new machine for Sila/00 project at the stone-pit Rečica near Laško. In one hour the film uncovers their work in their hometown Laško and nearby stone-pit in Rečica. We can follow THE STROY’S members to the junk yard, searching for new instruments, see their rehearsal place and witness on how an impressive giant sound machine is growing in the middle of rocky scenery of the stone-pit. We can also see the interviews with all the members of the group during the film that ends with a spectacular performance in front of 5000 overwhelmed people.
Script: Edvard Žitnik Director: Brane Bitenc
‘NOVI SVET’ (NEW WORLD), serial, TV Slovenia 2002
At the end of year 2002, the tribe contributed in the final shots of a new TV serial, directed by Maja Weiss and produced by TV Slovenia.
LINKS
