Gjurmët

Gjurmët (German Traces, Eng. Traces The) was a Kosovo Albanian New Wave band or post-punk band from Pristina in Kosovo, which was founded in 1980. It does next to Elita 5, TNT, Trixi, Fisnikët, Ilirët and Minatori as one of the most famous bands of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo of the former socialist Yugoslavia.

History

The band was founded in 1980 by Migjen Kelmendi (vocals, rhythm guitar), the son of writer and journalist Ramiz Kelmendi. Migjen Kelmendi studied until 1983 Law at the University of Prishtina and later worked as a radio and print journalist and as a writer and translator. He settled in the band's formation of Western New Wave inspired music, but also worked traditional Kosovar Albanian musical influences in the work of the band.

Their first album Gjurmët published Gjurmët 1985 cassette at Radio Television Pristina after the band had completed to the recordings already a year earlier. In 1986, the band split. In 2002, the album LP was released, a compilation of recordings from the 1980s.

Kelmendi then made ​​after stays in Canada and the United States career as a journalist. He was chief editor of the contact program on Radio Television Pristina, later production manager of the Kosovar Albanian edition of satellite television and finally director for television and literature program on the public broadcaster Radio Television Kosovo. He also publishes the weekly magazine founded by him in Java gegischen (ie Kosovo Albanian ) dialect, the magazine Epoca, and the cross-genre literary magazine MM theory. He published several books, such as the 1994 novel The Gate of Time, 1997 Carere Patria ( notes on impressions and experiences in Albania ) or 1998 Toward Home ( essays on America). In 2007 he received the Press Freedom Award. He moved and are under the name Java Multimedia Production produces publications such as Who is Kosovar? Kosovar identity. A Debate. (2005). He tried to give his editorship the discourse on Kosovo Albanian identities and particularly positions beyond nationalism and racist ethnicization room.

Social Context

Content, Gjurmët busy with the interests of young people and the social and cultural changes in Kosovo in the 1980s. The band was at in the field of tension between the notes played on Radio Luxembourg international music and modernity on the one hand and the cultural repression albanian singing rock bands in socialist Serbia on the other side.

Examples of Gjurmëts oeuvre Hero I Qytetit Pa Lum (German hero of a city without a river), for the David Bowie song Heroes with its style and content was groundbreaking and whose theme is applied the band members in their own life situation. Gjurmët wondered in what form they might be heroes in their city. They answered this question with the fact that they can not be heroes because their hometown Pristina has no river. He was filled and they live in the only capital city without a river - they are the heroes of the city without a river.

The operation of a rock band was considered at that time as political positioning. How many young intellectuals - - After the riots in Kosovo in 1981, the band members identified under the influence of the University of Prishtina with the Albanian nationalist opposition.

In the 80 years Gjurmët appeared at festivals in front of up to 5,000 spectators, eg on the BOOM Pop Festival with bands from all over Yugoslavia.

Discography

Texts on Gjurmët

• Migjen Kelmendi: To Change The World: A Short History of The Traces, (English, German Change the World: . A Brief History of the tracks ) JAVA Multimedia Production, Prishtina 2001 - The book describes how the rock scene in the Balkans incl. Gjurmët the band were involved in the political processes which later evolved into the war in Yugoslavia. ( The English translation of Banda Mens Gjurmët reads traces. )
• Migjen Kelmendi: Gjurmet LP ( story )