Sad | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 11 March 2024 | |||
Recorded | 2019–2023 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 50:57 | |||
Language | ||||
Producer |
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Ida Prester chronology | ||||
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Singles from Sad | ||||
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Sad (transl. 'Now') is the debut solo album by the Croatian musician Ida Prester, the founding member of Lollobrigida. It was self-released on 11 March 2024. All of its tracks were released during previous years, majority of them as singles, alongside music videos. Guest appearances on the album include Pocket Palma, Fantom and Last95.
Ida Prester has been active on the music scene of former Yugoslavia since 2003, when she founded Lollobrigida and shared demo CDs to Zagreber musicians. Prester already then started shaping up her sound within boundaries of electropop and synth-pop, while her lyrics were described as "honest and realistic, of danceable rhythm and punk attitude". Soon after their first performance at KSET, they became a staple of Zagreb's underground scene. In 2013, Prester founded Frau Casio, a solo project notable for its "little harder" electro sound,[1] as well as Balkan alternative dance-punk band MAiKA in 2016.[2]
Prester began her solo career in 2019.[1] Her marriage with the Belgrader entrepreneur Ivan Peševski[3][4] went through a "great crisis" during the album recording period. She dubbed songwriting her "lifesaving therapy", and some of its tracks her "little audio diary of last several years, containing many messages of importance to her".[5][6]
Prester was recording the album from 2019 to 2023. The majority of the material was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown in her own bedroom. The tracks are different from Lollobrigida's as they're more mid-tempo and "more layered in arrangement", which was influenced by Prester listening to gentler and subtler music as she grew older. She continued incorporating humorous, autobiographical themes and unusual motifs in her lyrics, which she was notable for. The album was produced mostly by Pocket Palma from Zagreb and Sergio Lounge from Belgrade.[5][6][7]
Prester's debut solo album was announced alongside the release of "Šansa" ("Chance"), her debut solo single.[7] Prester organized an event at Zagreb's Tvornica Kulture on 22 March 2024 in order to promote the album, celebrate 20 years of her career and celebrate her 45th birthday.[5] The event was directed by Filip Renić, better known as his drag persona Jovanka Broz Titutka, notable for collaborating with Let 3 on "Mama ŠČ!" (2023).[6]
The lead single "Šansa" was released in October 2019. It was arranged and produced by Voja Aralica, while its music video was directed by Maja Uzelac. The "unusual, colourful" video was shot in a sports hall and features a ballet choreography by Amsterdam-based cheoreographer Dunja Jocić.[7] "Šansa" was followed up by "Minuta" ("Minute"), released three months later. The production was handled by Sergio Lounge, and the music video was directed by prominent Split-based director Marcella Zanki.[8] Two months later, a "PP version" of "Minuta" was released; the collaboration was materialized after Prester met Pocket Palma's Anja Papa. Impressed by the remix, Prester talked Papa and Pocket Palma's Luka Vidović into recording their own vocals for it and they filmed a homemade music video with Pocket Palma's personal photographer Benjamin Strike.[9]
The third single "Dodir" ("Touch") was made during the lockdown. She recorded it in her own bedroom, with a computer and without studio equipment, sent it to Pocket Palma for arrangement, and filmed the music video in her bedroom as well.[10] A month later, in late May 2020, she teamed up with her band Lollobrigida and released an unplugged version of "Dodir", alongside a Vladimir "Piki" Miladinović-directed music video filmed on a rooftop above Belgrade during nighttime. The unplugged version or the track was rearranged by Lollobrigida's Svebor Šakić.[11] The Sergio Lounge-produced fourth single "Kvar" ("Malfunction") was released in August 2020, alongside Marko Ćerketa-directed music video. The lyrics of the breakup song are interpreted in the video by Prester's "'broken' poses and psychotic dancing".[12] The last single released in 2020 was "Luda" ("Crazy"), dubbed a sequel to "Kvar". Its synth-pop production and music video direction were again handled by Pocket Palma and Ćerketa, respectively.[13][14] An extended play Luda Remixes, executively produced by Marijan Felver, was released in February 2022 in 12" vinyl and digital download formats and contains the original mix as well as three additional remixes.[15] Prester released a music video for "Štef's dog version", handled by Hrvoje "Štef" Štefotić who had worked with her on the Lollobrigida track "Bivša cura" ("Ex-Girlfriend", 2010) and whose remix was inspired by punk rock and the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (1969).[16] Štef also directed the music video for his remix.
The title track, "Sad" ("Now"), was released in April 2021. It was produced by Lollobrigida's keyboard player Matej "Kleemar" Končan, while Pocket Palma handled mixing and mastering. Zanki, the director of its music video, compared the video to a 1970s science fiction film.[17] Two months later, a synthwave-inspired track "Ljetna ljubav" ("Summer Love") was released in collaboration with the Belgrader house DJ Danijel "Last95" Čehranov, alongside the 1980s-inspired music video directed by Marko Đurovski and starring Milica Šutović.[18][19][20] Prester concluded her 2021 by releasing a Pocket Palma remix of Lollobrigida's 2016 hit "Sutra" ("Tomorrow") and its Emilija Stanišić-directed music video. The remix reimagines the track's minimalist arrangement in Prester's and Pocket Palma's characteristic synthwave style.[21][22] During 2022, Prester released only one single "Budalo" ("You Fool"), a duet with Belgrader synth-pop musician Petar "Fantom" Wagner,[23] who's a staple of former Yugoslavia's indie scene. The pop art-inspired music video for the 1980s-inspired retro dance track was directed by Miroslav Terzić.[24]
In May 2023, Prester released "70", an ode to aging and the album opener. The music video for the Kleemar-produced track was directed by Hani Domazet and features elderly women, including Ksenija Marinković.[25] After the August 2023 femicide of Nizama Hećimović, a Gradačac native who was murdered by her partner Nermin Sulejmanović and whose murder was livestreamed by Sulejmanović via Instagram Live,[26] Prester was inspired to write "Štit" ("Shield"). The writing and recording were done a day after the crime, and the production was handled by Pocket Palma. The track is the anthem of the eponymous campaign against gender-based violence initiated by Prester and Arterarij, an organization focusing on promoting social tolerance. Romano Nikolić directed the music video in the name of Arterarij, and the campaign was supported (in form of starring in the video) by Dino Rađa, Seka Aleksić, Tihana Lazović, Frenkie, Aleksandar Stanković, Goran Bogdan, Dina Blagojević, Filip Filipović, Bane Trifunović, Andrija Milošević, Miljenko Jergović, Monika Herceg and Jadranka Đokić, among many others.[27] On 12 March 2024, alongside the album, Prester released the music video for "Malo vremena" ("A Little Bit of Time"). Written by Prester and Kleemar 12 years prior and released on Lollobrigida's album Pilula (Pill, 2012),[28][29] the music video was directed by Stanišić as her exam assignment at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade.[5][6]
All lyrics are written by Ida Prester; all music is composed by Prester, alongside co-composers as noted.
No. | Title | Music | Arrangement | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "70" |
| 3:45 | |
2. | "Kvar" | Sergio Lounge | 4:00 | |
3. | "Dodir" | Pocket Palma | 3:24 | |
4. | "Ljetna ljubav" (featuring Last95) | Danijel Čehranov | Last95 | 3:23 |
5. | "Sutra" (Pocket Palma version) | Pocket Palma | 3:46 | |
6. | "Malo vremena" | Matej Končan |
| 4:02 |
7. | "Sad" |
| 3:18 | |
8. | "Luda" | Pocket Palma | 3:30 | |
9. | "Minuta" | Sergio Lounge | 3:29 | |
10. | "Šansa" | Voja Aralica | 4:02 | |
11. | "Budalo" (featuring Fantom) | Fantom | 3:19 | |
12. | "Minuta" (PP version) | Pocket Palma | 4:57 | |
13. | "Štit" (kampanja protiv nasilja nad ženama) | Pocket Palma | 2:31 | |
14. | "Dodir" (unplugged) | Svebor Šakić | 3:25 | |
Total length: | 50:57 |
No. | Title | Music | Arrangement | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Luda" |
| Pocket Palma | 3:30 |
2. | "Luda" (Ilija Rudman remix) | Rudman | Rudman | 3:52 |
3. | "Luda" (Time to Sleep remix) | Karlo Pavlović | Time to Sleep | 6:34 |
4. | "Luda" (Štef's dog version) | Hrvoje Štefotić | Štef | 3:36 |
Total length: | 17:33 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Luda" (original) | 3:30 |
2. | "Luda" (Štef's dog version) | 3:36 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
3. | "Luda" (Ilija Rudman remix) | 3:52 |
4. | "Luda" (Time to Sleep remix) | 6:34 |
Total length: | 17:33 |
Credits taken from YouTube.[33]
Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Various | 11 March 2023 | Self-released | [30] |