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Volk (album)
Encyclopedia
Volk is a concept album
by Slovenia
n industrial group Laibach
. Originally, Volk is the German word for "people" or "nation" but also Slovenan for "wolf" (probable multilayered word play together with the picture of sheep on the front cover and the concept for the album). The album is a collection of thirteen songs inspired by national
or pan-national anthems
, plus the anthem of the NSK State, a virtual state to which Laibach belong. The album is a collaboration with another Slovenian band Silence
.
The album's liner notes credit Wikipedia
as their source for information on the national anthems featured.
The anthem of the NSK
is essentially the same arrangement as "The Great Seal", a song on their 1987 album Opus Dei
. Like "The Great Seal", the words are based on Winston Churchill
's famous "We shall fight on the beaches
" speech.
, 2005-2006.
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
by Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
n industrial group Laibach
Laibach (band)
Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with industrial, martial, and neo-classical musical styles. Laibach formed June 1, 1980 in Trbovlje, Slovenia . Laibach represents the music wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst art collective, of which it was a founding member in 1984...
. Originally, Volk is the German word for "people" or "nation" but also Slovenan for "wolf" (probable multilayered word play together with the picture of sheep on the front cover and the concept for the album). The album is a collection of thirteen songs inspired by national
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
or pan-national anthems
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
, plus the anthem of the NSK State, a virtual state to which Laibach belong. The album is a collaboration with another Slovenian band Silence
Silence (band)
Silence is a Slovenian electronic, synth pop and soundtrack music composing duo consisting of Boris Benko and Primož Hladnik . Their fanbase and their tours are currently limited to Slovenia, Germany and parts of Eastern Europe...
.
The album's liner notes credit Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
as their source for information on the national anthems featured.
The anthem of the NSK
Neue Slowenische Kunst
Neue Slowenische Kunst , aka NSK, is a controversial political art collective that announced itself in Slovenia in 1984, when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia. NSK's name, being German, is compatible with a theme in NSK works: the complicated relationship Slovenes have had with Germans...
is essentially the same arrangement as "The Great Seal", a song on their 1987 album Opus Dei
Opus Dei (album)
Opus Dei is the fourth album by Laibach, released in 1987. It features "Geburt einer Nation", a German cover of Queen's "One Vision" and two reworkings of Austrian band Opus' sole hit single "Live Is Life". The Opus song became the German language "Leben heißt Leben" and the English language "Opus...
. Like "The Great Seal", the words are based on Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
's famous "We shall fight on the beaches
We shall fight on the beaches
We Shall Fight on the Beaches is a common title given to a speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 4th June 1940...
" speech.
Track listing
- Germania - based on Das Lied der DeutschenDas Lied der DeutschenThe "'" , has been used wholly or partially as the national anthem of Germany since 1922. The music was written by Joseph Haydn in 1797 as an anthem for the birthday of the Austrian Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire...
(GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) - America - based on The Star-Spangled BannerThe Star-Spangled Banner"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
(USA) - Anglia - based on God Save the QueenGod Save the Queen"God Save the Queen" is an anthem used in a number of Commonwealth realms and British Crown Dependencies. The words of the song, like its title, are adapted to the gender of the current monarch, with "King" replacing "Queen", "he" replacing "she", and so forth, when a king reigns...
(United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) - Rossiya - based on the post-2000 Gosudarstvenny Gimn Rossiyskoy FederatsiiNational Anthem of RussiaThe National Anthem of the Russian Federation is the name of the official national anthem of Russia. Its musical composition and lyrics were adopted from the anthem of the Soviet Union, composed by Alexander Alexandrov, and lyricists Sergey Mikhalkov and Gabriel El-Registan. The Soviet anthem was...
(RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
) - Francia - based on La MarseillaiseLa Marseillaise"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song, originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795...
(FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) - Italia - based on Il Canto degli ItalianiIl Canto degli ItalianiIl Canto degli Italiani is the Italian national anthem. It is best known among Italians as Inno di Mameli , after the author of the lyrics, or Fratelli d'Italia , from its opening line...
(ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
) - España - based on Marcha RealMarcha Realis the national anthem of Spain. It is one of the few national anthems in the world to have no official lyrics ....
(music) and El Himno de RiegoEl Himno de RiegoEl Himno de Riego is a song dating from the Liberal Triennium and named in honour of Colonel Rafael del Riego. It was the national anthem of Spain during the Trienio Liberal and the First and Second Spanish Republics ....
(lyrics) (SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
) - Yisra’el - based on HatikvahHatikvah"Hatikvah" is the national anthem of Israel. The anthem was written by Naphtali Herz Imber, a secular Galician Jew from Zolochiv , who moved to the Land of Israel in the early 1880s....
(IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
) and Biladi (PalestinePalestinian peopleThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
) - Türkiye - based on İstiklâl MarşıIstiklâl MarsiThe İstiklâl Marşı is the National Anthem of Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, officially adopted on 12 March 1921 - two and a half years before the 29 October 1923 establishment of the Republic of Turkey, both as a motivational musical saga for the troops fighting in the Turkish War...
(TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
) - Zhonghuá - based on March of the VolunteersMarch of the VolunteersMarch of the Volunteers is the national anthem of the People's Republic of China , written by the noted poet and playwright Tian Han with music composed by Nie Er. This composition is a musical march...
(People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
) - Nippon - based on Kimi ga YoKimi ga Yois the national anthem of post-1868 Japan. It is also one of the world's shortest national anthems in current use, with a length of 11 measures and 32 characters. Its lyrics are based on a Waka poem written in the Heian period , sung to a melody written in the imperial period...
(JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) - Slovania - based on Hey, SlavsHey, SlavsHey, Slavs is an anthemic song dedicated to Slavic peoples. Its first lyrics were written in 1834 under the title Hey, Slovaks by Samuel Tomášik and it has since served as the anthem of the Pan-Slavic movement, the anthem of the Sokol physical education and political movement, the anthem of the...
(anthem of the former Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaSocialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
and unofficial anthem of Pan-SlavismPan-SlavismPan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
) - Vaticanae - based on Inno e Marcia PontificaleInno e Marcia PontificaleThe Pontifical Anthem or Papal Anthem is the official anthem of the Pope, which serves also as the anthem of the Holy See and the Vatican City State. It is played at solemn occasions of the State and ceremonies in which the Pope or one of his representatives, such as a nuncio, is present...
(Vatican CityVatican CityVatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
) - NSK - the anthem of the Neue Slowenische KunstNeue Slowenische KunstNeue Slowenische Kunst , aka NSK, is a controversial political art collective that announced itself in Slovenia in 1984, when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia. NSK's name, being German, is compatible with a theme in NSK works: the complicated relationship Slovenes have had with Germans...
, also known as "The Great Seal"
Personnel
Album written and produced by Laibach and SilenceSilence (band)
Silence is a Slovenian electronic, synth pop and soundtrack music composing duo consisting of Boris Benko and Primož Hladnik . Their fanbase and their tours are currently limited to Slovenia, Germany and parts of Eastern Europe...
, 2005-2006.
- Laibach are:
- Eber
- Saliger
- Dachauer
- Keller
- Silence are:
- Boris Benko
- Primož Hladnik
- Additional musicians:
- Boris Benko (Silence): vocals on all tracks except 08, 09, 10 and 14
- Yolanda Grant-Thompson: vocals on tracks 02 and 13
- Mina Špiler (MelodromMelodromMelodrom are: Mina Špiler , Matevž Kolenc , Miha Žargi , Matej Nolda and Polona Janežič . The band create everything by themselves: from music and lyrics through videos to design....
): vocals on tracks 05 and 07 - Maria Awa: vocals on track 07
- Artie Fishel: vocals on track 08
- Zed Mehmet: vocals on track 09
- Elvira Hasanagić: vocals on track 09
- Seaming To: vocals on track 10
- Nagisa Moritoki: vocals on track 11
- Brina Vogelnik Saje: vocals on track 12
- Luka Jamnik: analogue synthesizer sounds on tracks 02, 04 and 05
- Miha Dovžan: zitherZitherThe zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary citera, northwestern Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China...
on track 06 - Peter Dekleva: acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
on track 04 - Anne Carruthers: celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
on tracks 04 and 11 - Alojz Zupan: conductor of brass orchestra on track 14:
- Delavska Godba Trbovlje
- Vitalij Osmačko: conductor of children's choirChoirA choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
on track 04:- Janja Cerar
- Dasha Khotuleva
- Anna Vidovich
- Nastja Yatsko
- Technical support:
- Gregor Zemljič
- Iztok Turk
- Uroš UmekDJ UmekUroš Umek is an internationally acclaimed DJ and music producer from Slovenia, author of more than 500 releases for world renown record labels such as Renaissance, Armada, Cocoon Records, Audiomatique, Hell Yeah, Tronic, Datapunk amidst many others...
- Mixing and mastering:
- Paul PDub Walton
- James Aparcio
- Tom Meyer
- Project manager (Mute Records):
- Robert Schilling
- Cover painting:
- Laibach
- Design and layout:
- Phant & Puntza
- Text editing:
- Schrankmeister
- Special thanks to:
- Daniel Miller
- Robert Schilling
- Label: Mute Records