QUIETLY, THUNDEOUSLY

With decades of creative expression backing him, Goran Trajkoski is today one of the musical
landmarks of not only Macedonia but of the whole Balkans region. His audience, not
numerous but deeply loyal, can be found all across Europe all the way to its Eastern reaches.
From his initial youthful/rebellious impulses expressed in punk rock music through a self-
questioning and self-analysis, the developmental process brought him into having a deeply
profound insight into the ocean of his Macedonian musical heritage which resulted in the
tremendous achievements of the “The Fall of Byzantium” (Падот на Византија) and especially
of Anastasia, who, backed by his vocals, opened a timeless portal in the haystacks of the
Macedonian national, spiritual and aesthetic identity.

He continued perfecting his vision with the sonically radical “Nocturnal” and then added his
vocal contribution to Mizar’s powerfully anti-globalistic album “Terrible Beauty” (“Кобна
убавина”). The vision grew even wider with the fiercely anti-dystopian/anti- political retro-
cabaret project “Circo Europia” (Циркус Еурoпиа), while at the same time participating in a
decades-long creation of music for theater, generating some of his finest compositions, yet
again pushing us back into our shared heritage, unlocked and locked back up again in
“Bioscopia” (Биоскопија).

All of this historical background is blended together inside of his last two solo albums, “Beauty
Of The World” and “The Heavy Voice Of The New Anthems.” These days, it no longer matters
what musical genre or trend he is practicing – what matters is the soul of this composer, what
he lays out in front of us so earnestly so as to touch us some place deep, deeper than the
spurious daily sensations of the mind ever possibly could, while always maintaining his position
in the avant-garde.
Therefore, it is virtually impossible to visualize his full impact and legacy in terms of music, not
only because it is immense and spread out on a wider territory, but because he himself is not
much concerned with it (it is not even a priority on this webpage). What is important is that
Goran has never compromised, has never betrayed us, and has never given in to the oxymoron
called the “music industry,” the “music stage,” or any other type of pop-commercialization.
He stands true to his conceptual commitment in “The Heavy Voice Of The New Anthems”,
articulated powerfully in his lyrics as well as with the playful consistency of dissatisfaction as an
aesthetic category, including two punk songs in an album that is a convincing confirmation of
the his music.

Goran’s works are uncompromising and do not flirt with cheap tricks, but persist upwards to a
genuine ennoblement of the spirit and the passions, which is the main purpose of music, such as
we understand it. His music should be regarded as an emanation of a highly aestheticised

spirituality which the author through his human virtues and artistic talents manages to portray
for us for so long, not only for its liturgical elements but also for many other features. Those
who find his music heavy, or even dark, have never actually listened to it and never felt the
delight of its complex structure and its spectral, cognitive sensitivity.
In his own words: “I have never dreamt of big stadiums full of people with raised hands, or
crowded squares where dust lifts up and the breath of alcohol mixes with the fermented vapors
of human insides. Contrary to this image, ever since I was a child, I envisioned the picture of a
small or average club, a theatre or a cinema hall, and somewhere along the twelfth row or
maybe in the corner of the second row on stage, someone would say to himself, “From now on,
I will be a different, better person.”
True art has the power to make us better people. Goran Trajkoski has been singing his songs for
a long time now – sometimes deep, sometimes edgy, radical and experimental, sometimes
minimalistic or polyphonic, sometimes sad or tacitly gentle, sometimes affectionate and
compassionate, high and always authentic, and inspired by the most noble human impulses,
personified in what, truth be told, cannot be much spoken or written about – pure music,
towards which Goran travels quietly and yet thunderously, accompanied by the exaltation of the
creative spiritual existence and its strongest emanation: Beauty, even if terrible. Beauty of the
world.
Krum Velkov