Mizar (band)
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| Mizar | |
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| Country | Skopje, Republic of Macedonia |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Genres | Rock, Darkwave, Gothic |
| Labels | Avalon |
| Members | Goran Tanevski Gorazd Čapovski Ilija Stojanovski Žarko Serafimovski Vlatko Kaevski |
Mizar is the name of a Macedonian rock band. It was formed in Skopje in 1983. The first album was simply named "Mizar" and was released 1988 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on an independent label called Helidon.
Previous Macedonian bands recorded their songs in the Serbo-Croatian language for marketing reasons, but this album was the first rock album solely in Macedonian language. The album was a major success and is in the top ten rock albums ever released in former Yugoslavia.
The second album was "Svjat Dreams" and was released at the end of 1990. Shortly thereafter, the frontman, Goran Tanevski, left the band. By 1991, the band had broken up. In 2004 they reunited and released a new album titled "Terrible Beauty".
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[edit] Name
The band got its name from the star with same name Mizar. It was a guiding star for travelers to stay on their routes in the desert.
[edit] Mizar music
Although Mizar's music is labeled as rock, they also combine sounds of balkan (macedonian) etno music with byzantine music traditions and all of that in a very dark atmosphere. Another main part of their music is Gorans' (both Tanevski and Trajkovski) vocals which are based on orthodoxslavonic singing (Црквенословенско појање). Because of this they are often considered as darkwave or gothic rock.
[edit] Story of the Mizar
In their long history Mizar had 3 Revelations, all of them with different singers.
[edit] The First Revelation (Risto Vrtev)
The band was formed in 1983 in Skopje, but their first self-titled album came out in 1988. The first line up of Mizar was:
- Gorazd Chapovski (guitar)
- Risto Vrtev (vocal)
- Ilija Stojanovski (bass guitar)
- Panta Dzambasovski (drums)
[edit] The Second Revelation (Goran Tanevski)
In 1985 Vrtev left Mizar and instead of him Tanevski joined them as a new singer. In addition to this change keyboardist Slobodan Stojanovski joined. This change has shown in their music which was till then pure rock. Now sounds of balkan (macedonian) etno and byzantine came in and something totally new and unheard before emerged. From that time they are known as Мизар - Второ Откровение (Mizar - The Second Revelation). Vrtev later founded Arhangel (Archangel) which was considered to be the best rock band in Macedonia during `90. Although it was a rock band it had dark Mizar-like atmosphere, which is way Arhangel was sometimes referred as the Rock Mizar. During that time there had been many changes in the band and for a year (1986/1987) Goran Trajkovski (later lead vocalist in Anastasia) played bass
In the same year they recorded a few demos and supported Laibach and Disciplin A Kitchme on their Yugoslav tour. Next year they got an audience award at a Youth Festival in Subotica (the most significant rock festival in Yugoslavia), with their totally different sound, although most of the crowd was fans of the harder sound (KUD Idijoti, punk band from Pula won competition that year).
They release their first, self-titled album, in 1988 and the line-up was:
- Goran Tanevski (vocal)
- Gorazd Chapovski (guitar)
- Boris Georgijev (drums)
- Sasho Krstevski (bass guitar)
- Katerina Veljanovska (keyboards)
and the producer was Goran Lisica Fox. Beside their songs there was a cover of the famous Macedonian folk song "Zajdi, Zajdi" titled Macedonian: "Златно сонце" (Golden Sun) and one of the best songs on it was Macedonian: "Девојка од Бронза" (Girl of Bronze)
Their second album came out in 1991. and was titled "Svjat Dreams". The name comes from cover they made of Eurythmics song Sweet Dreams, which was a big hit at that time. Beside their songs, there was another macedonian traditional "1762" and song written by Vrtev, first singer of Mizar, titled Macedonian: "Дом" (Home).
After the release of the band's second album Tanevski left the group and a new singer is brought in, Nora, but by the end of the year Mizar ended their existence. Tanevski started organising concerts in Macedonia, Kaevski restored his old band Kiborg, while Chapovski went to Australia. There he formed Kismet in 1993 as some way of continuing Mizars work because their sounds were very similar. Kismet's story ended in 1999 when he went back to Macedonia.
[edit] The Third Revelation (Goran Trajkovski)
In 2001 Tribute to Mizar was released. This was collection of Mizar song covers by some of the best bands in Macedonia (Majakovski, Syniac, etc). Two years later the first two albums were released on CD only in Macedonia, but they found their way to all parts of ex-Yugoslavia. The first of them, named Macedonian: "Свједоџба" (Тestimony), consisted of the first album and some bonus demo and live songs.
Mizar was reunited in early 2003 with their former member and ex-singer of Anastasia Goran Trajkovski as vocal and one of authors of the music along with Chapovski. Before entering the studio they released an internet song Macedonian: "Почесна Стрелба" (Honouring Salute). That summer they played at the Exit festival in Novi Sad and in the Zagreb alternative club Mochvara (Swamp) on which they gave fans a new single on record with ticket. In the middle of the next year a new album titled „Terrible Beauty (is born)“ came out. During 2005. Mizar toured ex-yugoslavia, and in the beginning of November they visited SCG playing in Panchevo, Belgrade and Kragujevac.
During summer 2006. old Mizar vocalist Goran Tanevski replaced Goran Trajkovski. In the beginig of november that year Mizar played in Belgrade and announced begining of work on new album with Tanevski.
[edit] Discography
- 1988 - „Mizar“
- 1991 - „Svjat Dreams“
- 2003 - „Svjedodzba“ + „Svjat Dreams“
- 2004 - „Terrible Beauty (is born)“
[edit] Band members
- Goran Tanevski (vocal) 1985 - 1991, 2006 -
- Gorazd Chapovski (guitar)
- Ilija Stojanovski (bass guitar)
- Zarko Serafimovski (drums)
- Vlatko Kaevski (keybords)
[edit] Former band members
- Risto Vrtev (vocal) 1983 - 1985
- Goran Trajkovski (vocal) 2004 - 2006
