The album „Traditional Songs and Tunes from Eastern Serbia” is the result of many years of artistic and research work by Svetlana Spajić and Bokan Stanković, dedicated to the preservation and understanding of Serbia’s traditional musical heritage. The repertoire has been shaped through field research, archival recordings, and direct work with tradition bearers, with the aim of preserving original styles of singing and playing, free from folkloric stylization or stage embellishment. At the center of the soundscape is a historical type of bagpipe, whose distinctive tonal system and archaic timbre create a unique musical space. Voice and instrument enter into a dialogue without hierarchy—the vocal line carries the text and emotional charge, while the bagpipes evoke deep historical and ritual layers of tradition. As Svetlana Spajić notes, the project represents “an attempt to revive, through performance, the experience of tradition in its original context, with full respect for the singers from whom the songs were learned.” This approach understands the song as living heritage rather than as a stylized folkloric form. Uroš Smiljanić describes the music in striking terms: “This is music reduced to such essentials that two voices, at times performing complex and at times entirely simple melodic lines (while harmony struggles with its own illusion of closeness), make it hard to believe that only two throats are singing. What is heard is an orchestra of winds and elements — so much so that words almost fall short.” Recorded live at the Todo Mundo festival in Belgrade in 2013, the album preserves the immediacy of the musical moment and the energy of the encounter between performers and audience. This release stands as a valuable testimony to the continuity and contemporary relevance of Serbian traditional music.

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