Miso Kovac

The Roland Kovac New Set released several instrumental LPs on the Selected Sound label from Hamburg, the second and third of which, "The master said" (1971) and "Love that" (1972), are good progressive rock with a clear emphasis on jazz. The line-up on "The master said" consisted of top musicians: Master Roland Kovac himself had obtained his doctorate in music as early as 1952 and written numerous classical works and soundtracks. Guitarist Siegfried Schwab had just become famous at that time by working with Et Cetera and other groups and shows his brilliance on this LP with his fuzz guitar. Drummer Charly Antolini ("Knock out") had already been in business for many years and is still first choice on the jazz scene today. The fourth member was Franz Löffler on bass, who had already released several guitar LPs in the 1960s.

Released by ReR in 1995, this CD reissues Boris Kovac's LP Ritual Nova, Vol. 2 (1989, Points East) and adds three cuts from the first Ritual Nova (1986, Symposion) that were tucked in at the end of each LP side. It reintroduced the music of this brilliant ex-Yugoslavian composer, paving the way for his two magnificent CDs for Victo in the late '90s. But while these later efforts would be recorded with a working ensemble, both Ritual Nova albums were built track by track by Kovac alone. He plays saxophones and clarinets, plus flute, Hungarian zither, percussion, an array of Eastern European folk instruments, and sampler. Djordje Delibasic has added touches of percussion (minimal but very effective, orchestra-like). Violinists and singers appear occasionally…