Ozren Depolo-Chapters (Screen & Stage Dancefloor Jazz From Yugoslavia 1971-1984), FOX015LP LP
30,00 €
This is pre-order. we expect record in the first week of November
Taken from label press:
Unreleased music for film, theater and television by Ozren Depolo (1930 – 2005), Croatian and Yugoslavian jazz saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist and composer. Member of Plesni orkestar RTZ, Zagreb Jazz Quintet, Nonconvertible All Stars, B. P. Convention Big Band and YU All Stars Big Band. Collaborated with Zdenka Kovačiček, Igor Savin, Boško Petrović, Art Farmer, John Lewis, Clark Terry, Oliver Nelson, Gerry Mulligan, Slide Hampton, Johnny Griffin, Ted Curson, Leo Wright, Art Taylor, Lucky Thompson and many more.
★ From the Original Master Tapes
★ 180g Audiophile Vinyl
★ Extensive Liner Notes
★ 12-page Booklet with Photographs and Texts
★ Artwork by Dejan Dragosavac Ruta
★ Pressed by Record Industry Netherlands
★ Black Vinyl + Limited Edition Green Vinyl (100 copies only!)
★ Mastering and lacquer cutting by Frank Merritt at The Carvery
★ Featuring Igor Savin and Zdenka Kovačiček
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This collection includes music for:
★ Rani snijeg u Münchenu / Early Snow in Munich (1984) Directed by Bogdan Žižić
★ Daj što daš / Whatever You Can Spare (1979) Directed by Bogdan Žižić
★ Put k susjedu / Way to Your Neighbor (1981) Directed by Nedeljko Dragić
★ Zimska želja / Winter’s Wish (1982) Directed by Leo Fabiani
★ Maturanti / The Graduates (1978) Directed by Ivica Ivanac
Guest musicians ZDENKA KOVAČIČEK, IGOR SAVIN, PLESNI ORKESTAR RTZ, BOŠKO PETROVIĆ, MILJENKO PROHASKA, ANSAMBL ALFIJA KABILJA, MIROSLAV SEDAK – BENČIĆ, LADISLAV FIDRI, DAMIR DIČIĆ, IVAN KELEMEN, KREŠIMIR REMETA, SVEMIR OPARA.
Mastering and lacquer cutting by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London. Pressed at Record Industry, Netherlands.
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Although Ozren Depolo was a central figure of post-war Yugoslav jazz—playing clarinet and saxophone with the Radio Zagreb Dance Orchestra from the early 1950s, collaborating with ensembles like the Zagreb Jazz Quintet and Acezantez, and performing alongside international giants such as Clark Terry, Oliver Nelson, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis and Johnny Griffin, he rarely stepped forward as a composer in his own right. His reputation was built on performance, improvisation and arranging. The wealth of music he created for film, television and stage remained largely hidden, scattered across productions and often unheard outside their original context.
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Chapters changes this narrative. Compiled by curators Leri Ahel and Željko Luketić, the record presents a vivid cross-section of Depolo’s work between 1971 and 1984, a period when he was at the peak of his creative powers and fully immersed in the world of screen and stage composition. Drawn from feature films, animated shorts, theater productions and television projects, these pieces reveal a composer equally fluent in dancefloor-friendly grooves, avant-garde jazz textures, atmospheric orchestrations and playful electronic experiments.
The release demonstrates how Ozren Depolo was able to shift fluidly between idioms: from driving big-band passages to intimate chamber-like arrangements, from funk-tinged motifs to lyrical, impressionistic soundscapes. This stylistic breadth, always anchored in his deep jazz sensibility, gave his music an adaptability perfectly suited to the hybrid world of stage and screen. The LP highlights that versatility while also presenting the coherence of his artistic voice, one that had gone unrecognized precisely because it was dispersed across so many contexts.
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For listeners familiar with the history of Yugoslav jazz, Ozren Depolo’s career is often remembered in fragments: his role as a soloist in orchestras, his collaborations in experimental ensembles, his work with vocalists and fellow composers. Chapters re-frames him as an author in his own right. By treating the recovered recordings as a unified body of work, the release effectively becomes his “third album”, the one he never had the chance to issue during his lifetime. It’s also the first with his compositions only.
The project has been realized with the same archival precision and cultural responsibility that has defined Fox & His Friends catalog. Each recording was carefully digitized from original master tapes or film sources, then restored and sequenced for vinyl by Ahel and Luketić. Mastering and lacquer cutting were undertaken by Frank Merritt at The Carvery in London, ensuring the highest fidelity. Pressed at Record Industry in the Netherlands, the album is packaged with striking design by Dejan Dragosavac Ruta, complemented by rare photographs and comprehensive notes that contextualize Depolo’s life and work.
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Chapters is more than a compilation; it is a cultural restitution. It rescues a vital part of regional music history from obscurity and places it within the broader narrative of European jazz and screen music. At the same time, it offers contemporary audiences fresh, vibrant sounds that defy their age. What was once ephemeral, background music for a play, a theme for a film, an interlude for television, now stands on its own as art.
★★★ TRACKS ★★★
A1 Grotesque (Chapter 2)
A2 Duo + 1
A3 Night out (Theme from Early Snow in Munich)
A4 Paraphrase SW (Theme for Stevie Wonder)
A5 Peep Show feat. Zdenka Kovačiček (Theme from Early Snow in Munich)
B1 Love Experiment (End Credits from Whatever You Can Spare)
B2 Video Games (Theme from Early Snow in Munich)
B3 Whatever You Can Spare (Orchestral Version)
B4 Early Snow in Munich (Opening Credits)
B5 The Forrest Date (Theme from Whatever You Can Spare)
B6 The Graduates (Theme from the play The Graduates)
B7 Oberhausen (Theme from Way to Your Neighbour) (Orchestral Version)
B8 Winter’s Wish (Theme from Winter’s Wish)
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Executive producers, creative directors, research, audio digitization and compiled by Leri Ahel & Željko Luketić. Liner Notes by Željko Luketić. Track sequencing by Leri Ahel. Audio preparation by Toni Milohanić. Mastering and lacquer cutting by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London. Pressed at Record Industry, Netherlands. Artwork and design by Dejan Dragosavac Ruta. Rights Society: HDS/BIEM. ©℗ 2025 Fox & His Friends Records