iambountyfan; echoes - Ruzina Frankulin, Darko Škrobonja, Ane Paška our tribute project ECHOES FROM OUR PAST features a variety of musicians, artists and creatives from all over the world; today we proudly present one of the finest works within the tribute, and are joined by Croatian composer, musician and sound designer Ruzina Frankulin (Tonči Bakotin), filmmaker and DOP Darko Škrobonja and finally actress, singer and musician Ane Paška (Ana-Marija Fabijanić) ahead of the debut of their music video “Aroma Ecito”, an original track created exclusively for iambountyfan. Q. hello everyone! please, feel free to introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about your work. Darko Škrobonja: I’m a multimedia artist and a filmmaker. I also work on various projects as a photographer, director, and DOP/cameraman. In my personal work, I mostly deal with subjects like the passing of time and the absurdity of human existence. Ruzina Frankulin: Just a boy who as a 4 yr. old started jumping around a portable radio cassettophone. Since then, nothing really changed regarding the sensation I feel when the right sounds and images hit me. One of the best things in my life was the privilege of being a part of the music collective Zidar Betonsky, with which I enjoyed some fantastic intimate success thanks to my partners, both as artists and as extraordinary mates. Apart from music, I do bits of audio technology lecturing, sound design, postproduction and video filming. Ane Paška: I am somebody who likes to explore different ways how to translate ideas and inner space of imagination in the language of music, words, performance, video, film. I finished dramaturgy in the Academy of dramatic arts in Zagreb and Master Film and Video in Art Academy in Split. During these years I took part in many workshops of contemporary theatre, physical theatre, performance and many different vocal and voice education. I also play a few musical instruments, and since 2014 I’ve been performing exclusively author works composed of my texts, poems and music. I have created several short music films that have been screened at various festivals around the world. Q. you are all well versed in different art fields. could you tell us a bit about how the three of you met? is “Aroma Ecito” your first collaboration? D.Š.: In 2013 I was filming a short experimental film for a theatre company with whom Ruzina collaborated. Over the next few years, we got to know each other much better when he helped me with sound editing and sound design on 3 of the films I made at the Arts Academy University of Split. In 2019. he introduced me to Ane and our first collaboration “Aroma Ecito” began. R.F.: I met Darko through some short film projects and we continue to collaborate whenever there’s an opportunity out of mutual interests. Darko was a logical choice for this project, because I knew we could fulfill each other in the most fruitful way; the same goes for Ane. I met her about two years ago when a friend suggested that I go see one of her live performances. I don’t go out often as I’ve lost interest in the local scene, but it turned out it was well worth leaving the studio. I consider her as probably the most exciting upcoming music artist in Croatia at the moment. We are preparing some things together, cooking well behind the scenes. A.P.: When I decided to record my music album, a friend of mine recommended Ruzina and his music studio. We met after one of my performances and both of us had a great wish to create something together. Right now, we are in the process of recording music and this collaboration is really fantastic to me. Ruzina also introduced me to Darko when we were planning to make “Aroma Ecito”.
Ane Paška, photo by Kaja Zulin Q. what are the biggest inspirations behind your creative drive? D.Š.: The process of creating art is my only drive and inspiration to do more. Time stops, life has meaning. R.F.: There are likely tons of sound and visual imprints that I’ve absorbed during the years. It is important for me to try to keep them on an unconscious level, and use musical instruments and technology to sculpt something that has emotion. My destinations are always emotions. A.P.: Life itself! There are so many beauties in the world, evil, sorrow, happiness, misunderstandings, kindness, suffering, poetry, secrets, that art can help us embrace with all the nuances of such a complex and incredible world. Q. how long has it been since you first got in touch with the art of iamamiwhoami? which audiovisual era has been the most influential to you? D.Š.: Ruzina introduced me to the project in 2018. and I’ve been a fan ever since. The present [era] is the most interesting. R.F.: I was an immediate fan since early December 2009. I do not remember how I encountered it, but I followed all first six uploads in real time and was amazed by that work. I still think that those first videos are absolutely Jonna and Claes’ strongest work; I see it as reminiscent of all greatest pop electronica substruction, wicked and twisted with a fresh dose of originality. I was hoping to see a full length album released out of those. A.P.: Ruzina introduced me to the project as well and I also liked their first videos. Q. please tell us a bit about the creation of “Aroma Ecito” and the creative process behind the track. R.F.: When I was asked to create an original track for this release, I started to mess with some beats I had sitting on my hard drive for years. They didn’t have a structure that could make the pop form I had in mind when thinking of a homage to iamamiwhoami, but it had a certain atmosphere that drove me to something. The rest was done by layering beat and synthesizers. And I have no idea how I am doing it. It is a child’s play where I try not to screw the purpose of the track. A.P.: Ruzina made the music and had a concrete idea of the way I should sing. On the other hand, I have seen great potential in the song for it to have lyrics that are sung in a fictional language. In such a way the song could get an even more mystical character. In the end, we made a compromise and only one verse remained fictional, but very well correlated with the rest of the song. Q. what about the video? I can tell that some of the scenes within it are reminiscent of the “bounty” series. D.Š.: Yes, at our meetings we talked a lot about the “bounty” series which became our initial inspiration for the visual style and the mood of the video. Later on, our artistic characters began to take over and we started to play. R.F.: Sure, it came from the influence of iamamiwhoami, but soon enough Ane took over with her performance and ideas which she developed with Darko, who was also responsible for completing the technical side of filming. All I remember is that somebody said the word “oranges” and there it was. Oranges hanging from strings - and we made it seem pretty effortless, although people who saw the video before release commented that it surely was very well planned. And it was indeed planned, but I wouldn’t say “very well” because we worked by using instinct mostly. That’s I guess why we chose to work with each other. We just allowed dancing ideas to stick. A.P.: Two weeks before we started shooting the video, I was on a remote island with a beautiful sandy beach. I was playing with kids, and at some point, they buried me in the sand. Then I stayed lying buried in the sand for a few hours; by that moment some scenes for the video came to my head and I decided to share them with Darko and Ruzina, and suggest that this could be the material on which we could continue to build the video. The idea of oranges crooned within me for several years since pregnancy, when the oranges in my imagination grew to the proportions of an entire continent and an incredible landscape. I’m glad that Darko and Ruzina have accepted these ideas and that the filming of the video was conducted in a beautiful and relaxed atmosphere in which we gave ourselves a chance to improvise. Q. we really enjoyed Ane’s performance in the music video. can you tell us a bit about the lyrics and the general meaning behind them? R.F.: Lyrics are basically about the process of creating music or art in general. The ideas that jump and dance around you, completely free, like muses. It’s up to you to allow them to take you on- they are not always happy encounters, they can burn you as well. Important parts were added by Ane, like voice emotion and the line «smoo la te lo mande lai», which we still do not know how to explain to anyone, but we know the feeling behind it or how it looks on one’s face. I think it fits perfectly for this. A.P.: Thank you very much! As I said, I had an idea to invent a language for this song, but finally we made a compromise and found a way to balance the English and fictional language into a meaningful whole that sounds good. Q. as you might know, To whom it may concern. is an independent reality that creates and releases film and music without creative boundaries. would you say that the Sensoria collective shares a similar premise? R.F.: Well, Sensoria is basically an artistic association and as such it is a non-profit organization. We mostly deal with non-commercial content - be it sound or video. Some releases I am particularly proud of are an experimental documentary about the ocean surface (“m.ocean”) and audiovisual 7-channel installation called “Festival”, where we showed what is possible when you take seven so-called notable Croatian singers and take millisecond audio and video sample snippets to transform them to completely new electronic music with accompanying videos. These will both be released next year in physical form. This year, we are releasing music from five theatre plays for the Fractal Falus Theatre, for which Zidar Betonsky have been creating music since 1997. We recently released “Aroma Ecito” and are continuing to make music with Ane. Our website is a mess at the moment, but it will soon be renewed.
Ruzina Frankulin, press photo Q. what do you think about the current state of the music industry? do you think independent musicians carry an important role altogether and how can they work around it? D.Š.: Yes, their role is very important. But there’s a big problem with music videos in general. They by themselves vary in quality, but the general trend is alarming. People are starting to watch music a lot more than listen to it. This is where filmmakers’ responsibility toward the musicians and their work is crucial. A true collaboration between the mediums is rare. R.F.: It seems to me that the music industry is more or less on the same page all the time. The industry wants to be industry – so they see artists as its workers, to put it lightly. It is just that mediums are changing: nowadays we have web and mobile platforms, so music is much more accessible than ever before. And the industry wants to charge every click, every move of finger, be it yours as a consumer or the artists’. Schemes like “pay what you want” or nesting music as payable torrents that were introduced by Radiohead are refreshing ideas, but unfortunately they aren’t working for unknown acts or bands without exposure. I am even not sure how iamamiwhoami managed to catch such big attention at first with unknown video uploads, but I am sure glad they did. Also, as I understand they had tours partially financed by their fans around the world, which is a great thing. I think we all need to adopt and try to use all we can while caring not to hurt anyone in one way or another. A.P.: I’m going to be honest, I don’t think much about the music industry at all. I am committed to creating, and so far I have witnessed that creation always finds its way to people. There are things that money can never and will not be a threat to. Q. thank you for your hard work and for joining us today! we wish you the best of luck for your future endeavours. all: Thank you very much! follow Sensoria.hr and Ruzina Frankulin on YouTube | Vimeo or check out their official website: Sensoria.hr follow Darko Škrobonja on Vimeo and Ane Paška on YouTube interview by Marco Napolitano
