Sarajevo born and raised, Damir Imamovic has been steeped in the sounds of sevdah since childhood. Much has been said of his stellar family tradition ? both his father and grandfather remain legends of the form. Since those early days, however, when he would ward off boredom during the siege of the city in the early 1990s by learning guitar chords in his basement shelter, Imamovic has completely changed the rules of the game.
For this is not a man content to insert himself seamlessly into any line of succession ? that would be too easy. He comes with questions and challenges above all: questions for those gatekeepers of the genre bent on reducing style, rhythm and repertoire to a narrow set of conventions; and challenges to the more recent 20th century orthodoxies that would make of sevdah a straightforward reflection of national character. Imamovic?s art is nothing less than a quiet, steady insurgency within sevdah ? deeply considered work that refuses the seductions of nationalism. It takes the music beyond its birthplace and shows it the world.
The new album takes these musical and cultural orthodoxies and plays the hell out of them. The title, Dvojka, refers (perhaps slightly provocatively) to the 2/4 rhythm of modern sevdah?s ?golden age? of the 1950s and 60s, when many of the conventions of the genre were codified, and when what you couldn?t do had as much weight as what you could. There is enough affection for those conventions to make it a tribute, albeit a sceptical one, to those earlier Radio Sarajevo generations; but this wouldn?t be a Sevdah Takht album if it did not strike out on its own from the very outset.
Damir Imamovic?s Sevdah Takht matches Glitterbeat?s cultural and musical enthusiasms perfectly. Theirs are global stories forged from a deep love for the regional tradition from which they come ? a love strong enough to withstand the demands that this restless young artist places on it. As far as culture is always politics, and struggle in one is always struggle in both, this is a deeply political project; but it is also Imamovic?s strongest personal statement to date.
