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Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra (Serbia)
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November 05, 20:00
YotaSpace 
The band was formed in 1981 in Sarajevo by a group of friends who worked on the early radio version of "Top Lista Nadrealista." Contrary to the then-prevalent punk rock and new wave, Zabranjeno Pusenje created a distinctive garage rock sound with folk influences, often featuring innovative production and complex story-telling, sometimes even dark premonitions of war. They went on to record four albums and tour the country extensively, occasionally sparking controversy and even getting into trouble with authorities for their (usually mild and sympathetic) criticism of the socialist system, and the habit of making light of issues considered sensitive at the time. In early 1980s, when the rest of the ex-Yugoslav popular music scene followed the trends of early 1980s Europe, Zabranjeno Pusenje were part of a unique rock movement centered in Sarajevo that forged its own path. This movement, for the most part, centred on simple, youthful, garage rock, with folk influences and a distinct Sarajevo urban feel called Novi primitivizam (New primitivism).
The songs range from punk to rock, quite frequently arranged to feature trumpets and saxophones, adding to the unique sound of the band, along with many samples and soundbites from the period. Zabranjeno Pusenje captured the feel of Sarajevo, its idols and local heroes along with tales of love and loss, in a distinctive and often humorous way. Very visual and cynical, the band's lyrics were progressive enough to show the last stages of Yugoslav socialism, alternate clubs and gays as well as providing morbid hints for the upcoming war. Their youthful energy and awareness of their surroundings made Zabranjeno Pusenje much more than the sum of its parts, a band that seemed able to record a great song with ease.
After the band's popularity reached new heights in late 1980s, spurred on by the televised version of "Top Lista Nadrealista," the Bosnian War which followed saw the breakup of the band, with one offshoot continuing work in Belgrade under the name No Smoking Orchestra, and the other in Zagreb, using the original name. Nevertheless, many of the songs of Zabranjeno Pusenje have attained an anthemic status and their music remains popular across former Yugoslavia.
The western part continued to perform in 1996 and have recaptured some of the group's success. They also later went to a European tour and by 2004 had released five new albums (three studio and two live albums). The eastern part released one new album as Zabranjeno Pusenje. It was then renamed Emir Kusturica & No Smoking Orchestra and released four more albums and continued touring all around the world. In 1998 the No Smoking Orchestra composed the music for Emir Kusturica's film "Black Cat, White Cat", which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival the same year.
Besides using No Smoking's compositions in the films, Emir Kusturica re-joined the band, this time as a guitarist. In April 2000, the recording of "Unza Unza Time" album is finished, and the title of the album is in fact is the name of the style they are playing. The name was given by Stribor alluding to the rhythmical sound of the guitar when playing the Serbian folk dance in two-four time, allegro. That rhythm along with "the Balkan version of the Rumba" become the two strongest points of their dancing music that nobody can resist. "No feet can stay idle to that music". Unza Unza Time is what they actually played during 1999 plus a few songs that they prepared especially for the album. The producer again is Voja Aralica, and two new members joined the tour: Dragan Radivojevic nicknamed Lav, as a sound engineer and Dragan Teodorovic nicknamed Zeko, as a roady, who’s been with the band as far back as 1985. After the "Unza Unza Time" album release the band embarked on new tours.
This time in cooperation with French "Yapuccom." The tour starts with France when the band played in "Olympia" for the first time, then Italy, Portugal, Germany. From first "shy performances" the band becomes the fitness and sweating machine for the audience. Live performances evolved into their nuclear bomb.
During the summer tour, Andrea Gambeta suggests to Emir to make a documentary film about the band travelling Europe, but the one that bears no resemblance to the big rock stars. Far from the notion about sex and drugs and rock and roll, this is a story about an unfortunate land, about confusing experimental time and about the musicians that found themselves unwilling at a cross road. Having found inspiration in some old tapes from 1960s, Emir embarks on a new adventure. He makes a documentary about the band members combining the old Super 8 format with new digital technology. That is how the movie got its name Super 8 Stories. Soon after, instead of being a TV documentary, it outgrew the format and became cinema documentary. It was first presented at the Berlin Festival in 2001. Then it spread radically throughout the world.
A few changes were made, Goran Popovic Pop, the tuba, instead of Balaban, Ceda, "the Guru" Marjanovic, the percussion, and at the end of 2001 the band goes on their first tour to Latin America where it receives an unbelievable reception. It was love at first sight. Instead of two planned concerts in Bs AS, due to an extreme popularity they ended up with 5; and after the November tour of 2001, Emir starts making his new movie and the band remains at his disposal. Nele and Stribor are playing in it; Dejan composes music together with Emir and the band plays.
In the Spring of 2004, the No Smoking Orchestra met again to promote a new film and a soundtrack "Life is a miracle." A new guitarist joined the album and the tour. Instead of Nenad Gajin who devoted completely to jazz music, came an experienced maestro Ivica Maksimovic. The number of countries where they performed increased rapidly and their performances became more explosive. And after more than 500 concerts in 30 countries (Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Latin America) Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra planed a new project Time of the Gypsies: Punk Opera in 2007. Based on Gordan Mihić and Emir Kusturica's script for the film of the same name, it was adapted by Nenad Jankovic and is performed in the Gypsy language. The main theme of the opera is a story about youth, entering in the real world, and the band used this theme as it's the most relevant Gipsy song, and made of it a kind of purification and cathartic journey trough life.
The Best of Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra album was appeared in 2009. And the musicians play such the best songs at their concerts around the world. Usually the concert set-list inludes not only music from Emir Kusturica's movies and band's main hits but also covers, for example Pink Floyd's "Smoke on the Water" cover or "F**k you MTV" cover.
More info
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