Miha Kralj
From Unearthing The Music
Miha Kralj (Slovene: [míha králj]; born 22 August 1949) is a Slovene composer, singer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age musical genres in Slovenia and the former SFR Yugoslavia. He is also called the "Yugoslavian Jean-Michel Jarre".
Biography
As a child he attended a musical school and played accordion and piano. In the 1960s and 1970s he played electrical synthesizers from Bauer, Moog, Vox and Hammond, and was a keyboardist in various pop-rock groups. He performed in many pubs throughout Ljubljana, including café Slon, where Milan Hribar, who performed there with his Intervali band, invited him to join him. They performed regularly in Motel Jasnica near Kočevje. When departing from Intervali, Kralj performed with Hribar in Austria and Germany with the group Celeias, who became musical contributors for the German singer Erik Silvester.[1]
He later joined the group Dekameroni (1969–1972), where he wrote his first hit single "Sava šumi". He founded his group called Prah (1975–1980) and the group performed at different places in Slovenia as well as the café Slon in Ljubljana. With the musical label Helidon the group released five singles. In the year 1980 Kralj started his solo career and with additional financial investment in buying synthesizers he recorded and released the first ambient and new-age electronic album in Yugoslavia, called "Andromeda".
The ZKP RTVS label didn't rate him as a recording musician, so he asked Vilko Avsenik who directed him to Boris Kovačič, the representative of Belgrade label PGP-RTB, which released his 1980s album Andromeda. Andromeda became a hit and sold 21.000 copies in Yugoslavia and 100.000 copies in Europe. The lead composition from Andromeda became the main theme of the Planica ski jumping contests and was played during ski jumping slow motion repeating videos.
In the year 1981 a photographer, Dragan "Belmondo" Timojević invited Kralj to join a Serbian girl-group, Cica-Mace, who had previously worked together with Kornelije Kovač, who also used synthesizers for creating their music.
Kralj composed several songs for other Slovene musicians and some people compare Kralj's style to that of Giorgio Moroder. He also composed ambient music for documentaries. He worked with various musical groups and as a solo performer on festivals such as Melodije morja in sonca, Slovenska popevka and Pop delavnica. In 1980 he received the second prize for his single "Halo Nataša" at the Slovenska popevka festival; in 1982 he received the prize of the jury for his single "Robot" at the same festival. In 1982 he released his second album, titled "Odyssey" and in 1985 his third, titled Electric Dreams.
Discography
Albums
- Andromeda (PGP RTB, 1980)
- A. Embrio, Simfonija c mol, Apokalipsa
- B. Andromeda, Wizart, Pegaz
- Odyssey (PGP RTB, 1982)
- Electric Dreams (PGP RTB, 1985)
Other discography
- Miha Kralj – Marina (Melodije morja in sonca, 1982)
- Miha Kralj – Robot (Slovenska popevka, 1982 / Pop Rock Ljubljana '82, 1982, ZKP RTV Ljubljana)
- Miha Kralj – Zemlja kliče SOS (Slovenska popevka, 1983)
- Miha Kralj – Zemlja kliče SOS (Telstar – od tod do vesolja – Spacebound, 2013, ZKP RTV Slovenija)
- Miha Kralj – Hočem živet (Metalka 35, 1984, Dokumentarna)
- Miha Kralj – To noč si love machine (Pop delavnica, 1984)
- Duo Error – Moški, moški (Pop delavnica, 1985) (Katarina Toš and Miha Kralj)
- Error – Sence svet (Pop delavnica, 1987) (Darja Šen and Miha Kralj)
- Miha Kralj – Jupiter (1982) (YU Elektronika 1978–1991, 2005)
- Milan Petrovič in Miha Kralj – Nevesta (1983)
- Katja Mihelčič – To nisi ti (1997)
- Katja Mihelčič – Kresnica noči (1999)
- Cica-Mace – Super, Super Marko (singl, 1981, PGP RTB)
- Cica-Mace – Zero (LP, 1981, Jugoton)
References
- Pina Gabrijan (26 September 2014). "Prelomna Andromeda bo po več kot štirih desetletjih ponovno odzvanjala v Mariboru" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 5 January 2019.
External links
<youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-b__4n_gI0<youtube>
Text adapted from Wikipedia