20. Boris Kovač & LaDaABa Orchest—Ballads at the End of Time (2003)
On the reverse side of the coin from
Love of Life is this album by Serbian composer and bandleader Boris Kovač. Returning home after years spent living abroad in various parts of Europe during the civil war, he formed La Danza Apocalyptica Balcanica (LaDaABa) Orchest and wrote this album "to exorcise the madness of war". If ever there was an album you'd expect to be weighty and depressing it's this one, but surprisingly it really isn't. There are some shadowy valleys here but mostly it's warmth and sunlight.
The style of music is pretty unique, yet somehow also as pleasantly familiar as an old winter coat. It's fairly jazzy, with a very noticeable presence of tango and a whiff of classical, but hovering over everything is a sensibility that I would describe as distinctly Balkan. It has that great minor-key yet upbeat thing going on that makes a lot of music I've heard from this region seem so very bittersweet. And though this is essentially instrumental music, when voices do occasionally make themselves known, they merge so seamlessly with the other instruments that the whole thing feels like one big organic mass.
As I've mentioned in my previous reviews, different people will react to the end of the world differently. Some with anger or despair, many with aggressive denial. What this album seems to be saying though, is maybe there's another way to look at things: Maybe you can face reality as it is—acknowledging the horror and tragedy—but also, at the same time, recognizing that this universe is still a place of wonder and of beauty.