The accordion is the most important traditional instrument in Slovenian music – but is it really the most uncool? Watch five music videos in which it is used in the usual but also experimental ways, from turbofolk to trap.

One of the most uncool instruments – the accordion – is a key feature of the Slovenian musical landscape. The accordion is such an old-fashioned instrument that, in the 1960s, it was already perceived as a traditionalist and conformist counterpart to the rebellious guitar – once a key instrument of the 20^th century subcultures – which today has itself become rather uncool and outdated in the eyes of some.

However, the Slovenian musical landscape has always functioned somewhat differently, or rather, indifferently, to what is perceived as cool. In this environment, the accordion has become a symbol of national identity. It is connected, for example, to the rise of local folk-pop, which transformed into the popular genre «Oberkrainer music», invented by Slavko Avsenik in the 1950s.

When Slovenia separated from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the event was marked by the specific sound of the accordion, which symbolized the break with the Balkans and the turn towards the supposedly Alpine, i.e. Central European, core of Slovene identity.

During this period, the sound of the accordion was also often combined with techno beats and dance backgrounds, which are characteristic sounds of regional trash culture. This culture, which was perceived as futuristic and traditionalist at the same time, was a bridge to Europe and a return to the rural origins of the country, but remained largely unknown outside the Slovenian bubble. Popular culture, which is addressed to the local masses rather than the specialized international public of highbrow music enthusiasts, often stays in such bubbles.

With the aim of bursting this bubble, we present five accordion-driven songs of the Slovenian music industry. Of course, we will not present the most well-known or stereotypical forms of folk-pop, which is our main theme of research in the framework of the project «Slovenian Folk-Pop as Politics: Perceptions, Receptions and Identities». Instead, we will present some of the more deviant and marginal forms of folk-pop and accordion used by Slovenian musicians.

Some of them might convince you that the accordion can become cool again, and some of them will convince you otherwise. Judge for yourself.

Music: Bratko Bibič
Track: «Rojišče Solo», Live at Rojišče Festival, Slovenia, 2021
Camera: Enej Mavsar, Benjamin Kovač
Editing: Bratko Bibič, Eduardo Raon

The man who has done the most in Slovenia to emancipate the accordion from its stereotypical uncool image is Bratko Bibič, a one of a kind intellectual, philosopher, composer, accordionist, and vocalist. Bibič liberated the accordion from the genre stereotypes of folk-pop music and integrated it into the subcultural and alternative civil society that flourished in Slovenia in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He is also the author of a wonderful book dedicated to the accordion – Harmonika za butalce (an approximate translation might be Accordion for Rednecks). This video shows his skillful and joyful performance at the Rojišče festival in Vrhnika in 2021.

Music: SkatER
Album: Pridi k meni
Track: «Vroče petke», Slovenia, 2008

The opposition to high taste and snobbery in music, which creates a sharp divide between quality music and trash, has manifested itself in recent years in nostalgic retromania, which no longer looks back to the iconic 1980s, but to the post-historical and cringy-sweet-happy 1990s and early 2000s. This was the time of the music market boom in Slovenia, and of the gradual dismantling of the socialist music industry, which had been marked by stricter gatekeeping standards. It was paradoxical when Slovenia simultaneously looked to a futuristic global future and to the origins of its rural mentality. This duality is perhaps best embodied by SKaTER (sometimes called Skuter), the Slovenian turbofolk equivalent of the German happy-hardcore band Scooter.

Music: Komik Vrlič
Album: Turbo fešta in humor
Track: «Najlepša si, ko sem pijan», Slovenia, 2006

Komik Vrlič is a comedian and musician rather unknown to the general public. Nevertheless, he has overcome the spell of the one-hit wonder by managing to become more than just a local legend at least twice. His promotional video for the Kope ski resort has reached more than 50 million views on Facebook. Even more famous (or should we say infamous) is his video for the song «Najlepša si ko sem pijan» («You are the most beautiful when I’m drunk»), which appeared at the beginning of trash-culture, when YouTube was still in its infancy. The video for the song, the lyrics of which are overtly chauvinistic and difficult to digest, became iconic mainly because it perfectly depicts an authentic scene in rural Slovenian inns: alcohol flowing in streams, meat being eaten, cops are beaten, glasses are broken, and the bar is cut with a chainsaw (the second most popular tool of «local boys», immediately after the accordion).

Music: SsmKOSK
Track: «SsmKOSK: SsmKOSK v živo na Veseljaku», Slovenia, 2014

A different type of folklore comes from Ljubljana kafanas (a Serbian term for pubs, often used in Ljubljana’s street language) and the local music underground. At times labeled as etnotrash, but deeply immersed in glitch and noise, SsmKOSK is known for his turbo-sampling of regional folk-pop elements, mostly of Balkan origin. The result is a chaotic fusion of breakcore, glitchcore, noise, and other electronic germs, swallowing listeners in a sonic and mental washing machine of its own kind. Thematically, SsmKOSK is often dwelling in the questions of gentrification, love, poetics, and the regional cultural and political mishmash. In the presented video, dating back to the early years of his DIY ride, SsmKOSK uses a live signal from the Slovenian folk-pop radio station Veseljak (meaning «merrymaker»), forming a sonic and cultural short circuit, and delivering an unknown noise pleasure straight out of the typical Slovenian folk-pop accordion tunes.

Music: Avsedrip (a s e b e n)
Track: «Kronika», Slovenia, 2021
Editing: FrodoTrash

Who says that the zoomer post-internet communities formed on Instagram and Discord have nothing to do with folk-pop and with the accordion? Aseben is a nationwide collective formed during the pandemic, who combine musical engagement, socializing, and gaming. It captures well the specific atmosphere of local folk-pop parties in its characteristic, post-ironic stance in the song «Kronika». The deep bass combined with the accordion seems to perfectly underline the «unheimlich» side of the events presented in the video. Pay attention also to the tractors, another pride of the Slovenian countryside: the sound of their engine seems to be similar to the accordion, which is why they represent the pride of the Slovenian «local boys» (in a similar way as expensive cars function in gangsta rap and trap).