Vesna Pisarović's new album "Poravna" (DLP/Digital, PDV084) was released on Friday, June 6, 2025. This edition continues the artist's artistic breakthrough by breaking down the traditional bounderies of musical genres and brings a unique combination of traditional Sevdalinka and avant-garde approaches from jazz and improvised music. "Poravna" was released under the auspices of the record company PDV, as well as Vesna's previous "Our Great Poetess", and brings a completely new imagination of the Bosnian Sevdalinka. The album contains 11 tracks recorded live during two studio sessions in Berlin. Vesna Pisarović is accompanied by musicians from Berlin jazz circles with whom she has already collaborated: Axel Dörner (trumpet), Tony Buck (percussion) and Greg Cohen (bass), and this time they are joined by French guitarist Noël Akchoté.
The result is something entirely new and special - a whole new reimagining of the Bosnian Sevdah genre, traditionally a capella or sparsely accompanied singing characterized by sustained melodies and melancholy atmospheres. But this is not a record of traditional music – it is something patently modern, largely improvised and pristinely recorded.
The vinyl edition of the album "Poravna" is available as an audiophile double disc printed on 180g media
Reactions to the album "Poravna" Worldwide
"Croatian vocalist Vesna Pisarović is one such artist, who on Poravna explores a combination of beautifully sombre Sevdah singing with semi-improvised experimental jazz jams on guitar, drums, double bass and trumpet. It’s quite the about-turn for the singer, best-known in her homeland as a platinum-selling pop star and former Eurovision entrant, but then that’s just one more layer to the fascinating stack of juxtapositions that defines this album – her singing remaining consistent in its assured beauty as the instrumentals ebb and flow in their intensity." - Patrick Clarke, Quietus
"You do not only listen to this song; you feel it. This track does not merely bring back tradition; it captures tradition in a new light, surrendering to silence and stillness to fill the absence where sound would typically reside. It is an immersive experience best described as beautifully thought-provoking." - Arifur Rahman, Twistedsoul
"What an album this is! The mixing of Sevdah, one of Bosnia’s most melancholic and romantic forms of music, with free improvisation is not something I expected to work, but with the vocals of Croatian singer Vesna Pisarović, Noël Akchoté on guitars, Tony Buck (The Necks) on drums, Greg Cohen on bass and Axel Dörner on trumpet, my confidence grew. Think of Bosnian folk mixed with the Durutti Column and The Necks, and you might get a clearer idea of what to expect. A fascinating album." - Rudy Carera, Music you need to hear
"It’s inspiring to see someone grow up in public, which is no easy thing, and mature in a manner that may alienate admirers of old but bring in new listeners who understand the bold chances taken to produce a hybrid work of such a remarkable nature”. - David Sylvian