My ten albums: Rok Košir
(photo: Roman Šipić)
Which 10 albums influenced you the most? This is a question that I will ask guests from the world music realm (musicians, producers, organizers, agents...), and I will share their answers to you every two weeks on these pages.
My guest in this edition of this column is Rok Košir, a man who cannot be bypassed when talking about the Slovenian, but also the wider world music scene. Rok was the director of the Druga Godba festival for many years, and in recent years he runs the agency ROK booking & management, through which he takes care of many great performers. Rok is a man who will gladly share his knowledge, whom you will meet at all important world festivals and events, a man whose lectures are extremely interesting, and people say he is not bad as a DJ either. Rok took a long time to choose his 10 albums, but in the end he chose this:
Sun Ra - Space Is the Place (Blue Thumb 1973.)
I was just parking my car on a way home from my journalist job late in the night when "Space is the Place" started to play on the best Slovenian radio station - Radio Študent. Even though I was tired as hell, I sat in the car for another 15 minutes or so to hear the whole song. Next day I went to buy a record in a small record shop in Ljubljana and when I am a DJ, I always end my set with the timeless, spaceless Space Is the Place.
Tomaž Pengov - Odpotovanja (ŠKUC/Helidon 1973.)
One of the most legendary albums not only in Slovenia but all of former Yugoslavia. I was only two years old when it was released so it's self-evident that I started to really like it much later. I needed to grow up a little bit before falling into the likes of Bob Dylan or Neil Young and only then I realised what a genius we have in Slovenia. Actually past tense would be more accurate: we hosted Tomaž in the third ever concert at the house concert series Pinelina dnevna soba in my living room only a couple of months before he passed away in 2014.
Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit (Editions Makossa 1975.)
It's difficult to decide what is more crazy about this album – the title, the cover or the music? But one thing is clear: those two songs on it, "Expensive Shit" and "Water No Get Enemy", are genius.
Patti Smith – Horses (Arista 1975.)
Seems like 1975. had a really big impact on my life (since it turned out that two of the ten albums on the list were released then). Actually, there could be easily The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967.), David Bowie (1969.) or The Stooges (1969.) listed here since they were all somehow interconnected.
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead (Rough Trade 1986.)
I guess some albums function great at some point of someone's life but don't last. Especially when you listen to it when you are young and don't know much about anything. But there are other albums which grow very nice as "The Queen is Dead" by The Smiths which was a soundtrack of my high school days.
Sonic Youth - Goo (Geffen 1990.)
When I look back, my father had a quite nice LP collection back in the 80s when I was growing up: Doors, Pink Floyd, Beatles (among some much more creepy Yugoslav folk music). But it was my older brother's collection in his room which always took more of my attention and sometimes I 'borrowed' some of his music. Sonic Youth's "Goo" opened the doors to another music world for me: I started to like strange things more than melodic, sometimes hymnic stuff from before. Very nice welcoming to the 90s.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son (Mute 1990.)
Another 'welcome to the 90s album' which I borrowed from my brother's collection and later bought a copy for myself. Nick Cave always had a special relation with Ljubljana, he even wanted to rent a venue and curate a program there, so I was lucky to see him many times in my hometown and as I can recall he always played at least one song from "The Good Son".
Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder - Talking Timbuktu (World Circuit 1994.)
It was the first album which I bought with the money I earned as a journalist and it immediately sparked my interest in African music which only grew in the following years, especially after visiting it for the first time. At that trip I managed to see Ali Farka Toure playing live in Timbuktu and even though nowadays I like his older records more than this one (I find Ry Cooder's guitar slightly to sweet for the crisp, rough sound of Ali Farka's instrument), it will always have a special place on my records shell.
Mulatu Astatqé – Éthiopiques 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale 1969-1974 (Buda Musique 1998.)
'Is he still alive?' asked the director of the Druga godba festival when I proposed to bring Mulate Astatqé to the festival when he invited me to be part of the program board. That was years before Ethiopian legend became well known because of Jim Jarmush's film "Broken Flowers". And he was alive and beautiful when he finally came to the festival.
Johnny Cash - American III: Solitary Man (American Recordings 2000.)
There is something utterly melancholic, nostalgic, romantic and beautiful in this album by Johnny Cash whose reinterpretations are often better than original songs. All American Recordings are gorgeous songbooks but this one is arguably the best one.
Plus additional five which I couldn't list because I am on one way or another to closely connected to as an agent, a manager or a friend (or sometimes all of that):
The Walkabouts – Devil's Road (1996)
Lobi Traore – Rainy Season Blues (2010)
Tamikrest – Toumastin (2011)
Damir Imamović – Singer of Tales (2020)
Širom – The Liquified Throne of Simplicity (2022)
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