Pingvinovo potpalublje: post - punk Zagreb 1981- 85

Postpunk (Dark Wave) in the Croatian Capital City (1981-85)

Legacy of Croatian New Wave (Novi val in Croatian), as part of wider and quite interesting ex-Yugoslavian Wave, always had a dual nature simultaneously being a mesmerizing and irritating phenomenon destined to be shoved down the throats of generations to come…

Growing up in Zagreb, one was confronted ad nauseam with four omnipresent names: Azra, Film, Prljavo kazalište & Haustor. Not that they were bad! Some of them earned their cult status being great too briefly, others remained respectable for a longer period. As the time progressed the “legend” of these four bands got overblown and in case of Azra reached almost mythical proportions.

“Sretno dijete” (“Lucky Kid”) or Zagreb (Ljubljana, Beograd) 1977-81

As we further explore the new wave era, the lesser known names will come lurking, slightly out in left field, in the shadows, on the margins, in the dark…

Interesting pocket sized “scenes”  were appearing in urban areas (Ljubljana, Rijeka, Novi Sad, Beograd, Sarajevo, Skopje etc.) across Yugoslavia. The entire movement bore similarities with the cultural happenings that were emerging around the globe at the time. In a way, it was not all that different from the semi-isolated variations found in New Zealand, Iceland, Brasil or Poland.

Were new-wave generations generally more successful in channeling their creative energy through synergy of (popular) music and visual art than generations before or after them?

Probably not so much, but it was undeniably vibrant, site specific art, and in retrospect, funny enough, even more interesting than it might have seemed the first time around.