Laibach
Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial, and neoclassical genres. Formed in 1980 in the mining town of Trbovlje, Slovenia, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst artist collective, a group which Laibach co-founded in 1984.
From the early days, the band was subject to controversies and bans due to their use of iconography with parodies and pastiches of elements from totalitarianism, nationalism and militarism, a concept they have preserved throughout their career. Censored in Yugoslavia, receiving a dissident status and a cult following in their home country, the band embarked on international tours and gradually acquired international fame, which led to wider acceptance by Yugoslav public and to attention of the country's mainstream media. After Slovenia became independent in 1991, Laibach's status in the country has turned from rejection by a part of the public to promotion into a national cultural icon.
Early Laibach albums were industrial-oriented, marked by heavy rhythms and roaring vocals. Later in the mid-1980s, their sound became more richly layered, featuring samples from pop and classical music. The band's lyrics, variously written in Slovene, German and English, are usually delivered by the deep bass vocals of lead vocalist Milan Fras. Initially the lyrics handled war and military themes; later, the focus turned to any highly charged political issue of the moment, sending intentionally ambiguous messages. They recorded a number of cover versions of popular songs, often turning light melodies into sinister-sounding gothic tunes.
The band has seen numerous line-up changes, with Milan Fras, Dejan Knez, Ervin Markošek and Ivan "Jani" Novak forming the best-known line-up. They have worked with a number of collaborators and guest musicians. During their career, Laibach have also recorded film and theatre music and produced works of visual arts, while the band members have embarked on a number of side projects.
History
The beginnings: Laibach with Tomaž Hostnik (1980–1982)
Laibach evolved from the band Salto Mortale, formed by Dejan Knez in 1978 in the mining industry town of Trbovlje. Laibach was officially formed on 1 June 1980. The members chose 1 June as the official date of the band's formation as it was Trbovlje's official holiday, marking the 1924 violent clashes between Trbovlje workers and the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists. The name Laibach, adopted after a suggestion from Knez's father, well-known painter Janez Knez, is the Austrian German name of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, a name used during the period when Slovenia was a part of the Austrian Empire, as well as during the World War II occupation of Yugoslavia. Initially, the members of the band did not reveal their names, but during its initial phases, the band consisted of Dejan Knez, Tomaž Hostnik, Ivan "Jani" Novak, Andrej Lupinc, Srećko Bajda, Marko Košnik and Marjan Benčina. In later interviews, the members stated that the band formation was sparked off by the suicide of Joy Division vocalist Ian Curtis, the death of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito and the beginning of the dissolution of Yugoslavia.Since its formation, Laibach had been preparing a multimedia project Rdeči revirji, a piece intended to challenge and provoke the political authorities in Trbovlje. The project was scheduled to be presented in the Workers' Hall in Trbovlje. However, the group's use of Kazimir Malevich's black crosses on their posters was determined by the authorities to be "improper and irresponsible", leading to considerable negative reaction in the media and the cancellation of the performance of Red District.
The band's first live appearance and an exhibition entitled Žrtve letalske nesreče took place in January 1982 at the Ljubljana club FV. It was followed by performances in Zagreb, in Lapidarij club, and in Belgrade, in Students' Cultural Center's foyer. For their live performances they used gramophones, radio devices and electronic instruments that they had built themselves, and the group's musical style was characterized by the Yugoslav music press as industrial rock. Instead of dry ice as a source of theatrical smoke, the group used original military smoke bombs, which was as unpleasant for themselves as for the audience. At a concert in Belgrade, the smoke forced part of the audience to escape through the venue's windows. In Zagreb, the use of smoke bombs on stage caused a search of the band's equipment conducted by the Yugoslav People's Army. The band stated that they used smoke bombs because they were "dealing with military subjects", which satisfied the officers in charge of the search. At this early stage of their career, Laibach's visuals employed mining iconography; eventually, the group would add such symbols as Triglav, deer horns and the Malevich's black cross encircled with a gear to their imagery.
At the time of their concerts in Ljubljana, Belgrade and Zagreb, the name Laibach and the posters with black crosses caused controversy, with some seeing this as a direct reference to the occupation of the country in World War II. The newspaper Delo published a reader's letter which stated: "Is it possible that someone has allowed in Ljubljana, the first Yugoslav city to be awarded the Order of the People's Hero, some youth group to carry a name which forcibly tries to revoke the name Laibach?". The band used this question as the opening for their performance on the Novi rock festival in Ljubljana, held on 10 September 1982. For their performance at the festival, frontman Tomaž Hostnik wore a military uniform, and despite being hit in the face by a bottle, causing him serious injuries, managed to bring the performance to an end. A part of the Yugoslav music press described the concert as the "symbolic end of punk rock".
On 11 December 1982, at the YU Rock Moment festival in Zagreb, the band held the performance entitled Dotik zla. It was Hostnik's last performance with Laibach. Ten days later, he committed a ritual suicide by hanging himself from a hayrack—one of the Slovenian national symbols—near his hometown of Medvode. Laibach disapproved of his act of suicide and posthumously "expelled" Hostnik from the group. Despite this, the group would in the future often refer to him and dedicate various projects to him, including an installation entitled Apologia Laibach, created around Hostnik's self-portrait.
Dissident status in Yugoslavia (1983–1985)
The group resumed its activities at the beginning of 1983, when they held an exhibition in the Prošireni mediji gallery in Zagreb. After a number of complaints, the management of the gallery attempted to persuade members of Laibach to remove part of the pieces, which they refused, and only four days after the opening, the management decided to close the exhibition. The band continued their concert activities with the vocalist Milan Fras. The group held a concert in Ljubljana's Freedom Hall, featuring guest performances by the English bands Last Few Days and 23 Skidoo. The 30-minutes long recording of dogs barking and snarling were used as the concert intro. The day after the performance, the group received considerable media coverage for a concert at the Zagreb Biennale entitled Mi kujemo bodočnost, during which the group used simultaneous projections of the propaganda film Revolucija še traja and a pornographic film. After the simultaneous appearance of late Josip Broz Tito and a penis on the screens, the performance was interrupted by the police, and the members of the band were forcibly removed from the stage.Following the performance at the Zagreb Biennale, the band published their "manifesto", entitled "Akcija v imenu", in the Nova revija literary magazine, largely thanks to Taras Kermauner, a philosopher, literary historian and one of the magazine editors. In the "manifesto" the band quoted Stalin and Hitler. The subsequent debut television appearance on 23 June 1983, in the informative-political program TV tednik, caused major negative reactions by the public. The members of the band appeared in the program sitting motionlessly, wearing army uniforms and armbands with black crosses. The host of TV tednik Jure Pengov stated: "Maybe now someone will react and ban, exterminate this danger, these horrible ideas and beliefs". After Laibach's appearance in TV tednik, they were officially banned from using the name Laibach on their records and live appearances, the decision even being printed in the Official Gazette of SR Slovenia. The scandal even led to some of the group members hiding in Pleterje Charterhouse for a short period of time.
The group then, together with Last Few Days, started the international Occupied Europe Tour '83, which included sixteen dates in eight West European and Eastern Bloc countries. The performances provoked a lot of interest in the European media, especially with the band's totalitarian musical and visual style. The socialist background, effective live appearances and a dissident status in their home country provided the group with a swift increase of interest in the Western countries. By combining the imagery of socialist realism, Nazism—which provoked the Slovene WW2 Veteran Organization in Yugoslavia—and Italian futurism, the group created a unique aesthetic style which could not pass unnoticed by the public. In Poland, they provoked the public by declaring themselves the sympathizers of Wojciech Jaruzelski. The statement provoked someone to present them with feces rolled into newspapers during the press conference in Warsaw. At the time of the tour, the song lyrics were mostly in German, but having included cover versions of English language songs, the group would start focusing more on the latter.
In 1984, the band members moved to Great Britain, where they worked as labourers in London, worked at a pier in Belfast and appeared as extras in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Through the Belgian record label L.A.Y.L.A.H. Anitrecords, the group released their debut record, a 12" single with Slovene language songs "Boji", "Sila" and "Brat moj". At the time, the band also appeared on the various artists album World National Anthems released by TRAX International, with their version of the Yugoslav national anthem "Hej, Sloveni". The band returned to Yugoslavia to prepare an exhibit at Ljubljana's Students' Cultural Center, entitled The Occupied Europe Tour Documents, which opened on 5 May 1984. Simultaneously, the band released the live audio cassette Vstajenje v Berlinu.
On 7 October 1984, Laibach officially founded the informal art collective Neue Slowenische Kunst with visual arts group IRWIN and Scipion Nasice Sisters and Rdeči Pilot theatre groups. They were later joined by Novi kolektivizam design studio, Graditelji architecture bureau, Retrovizija film group and the Odeljenje za čisto in praktično filozofijo group. The band also started two musical side projects, Germania and 300.000 V.K. On 21 December 1984, Laibach held a concert dedicated to the late Hostnik at the Malči Belič Hall in Ljubljana. Due to the fact that they were still banned from using the name Laibach, they announced the concert with posters featuring only a black cross, the initials of the hall, and date and time of the concert.
The following year, the group released their debut studio album, Laibach, through the Ljubljana Students' Cultural Center's label Ropot. Due to the ban of the name Laibach, the cover featured the group's trademark black cross without any text. On one of the album tracks, the band used a sample from a speech by Josip Broz Tito, however, it was removed by the state censors. During the same year, the German label WUS released Laibach compilation album Rekapitulacija 1980–1984. The recording of their performance at the Neu Konservatiw festival in Hamburg on 15 June 1985 was released on the live album Neu Konservatiw. At the end of the year, the band once more held a number of performances in West Germany, this time under the title Die erste bombardierung – Laibach über dem Deutschland. The concerts featured hunting imagery, like axes and trophy antlers, and during the concerts, the band members sawed wood on stage, surrounded by live tranquilized rabbits.
On 6 February 1986, with the Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre, the group premiered their own play Krst pod Triglavom at the Ljubljana's Cankar Hall. The performance was followed by a round table about the ban of the name Laibach, organized in Ljubljana. The discussion featured academics, representatives of political organizations and authorities, including the president of the Assembly of the City of Ljubljana Tina Tomlje. In a TV interview, Tomlje stated that she was informed of the quality of the band's works and of the success they had achieved abroad, but that they would not be allowed to perform in Ljubljana under the name Laibach. Soon after, the group released their second studio album, Nova Akropola, via British independent record label Cherry Red Records. After the album release, the League of Socialist Youth of Slovenia on their 12th congress demanded the ban on the usage of the name Laibach to be lifted. The ban was officially lifted on 4 April 1985, and the group performed their first legal concert in Slovenia under the name Laibach already on the following day, in Hum, entitled Krvava gruda, plodna zemlja. On the Yugoslav Youth Day, the League of Socialist Youth of Slovenia awarded Neue Slowenische Kunst with a plaque, and the League's official magazine Mladina awarded the collective with the Zlata ptica award.