Branko Isaković

Branko Isaković
Born (1958-06-24)June 24, 1958
Genres Acoustic, new wave, rock, hard rock, ethnic, ambient
Instruments Bass guitar
Guitar
Years active 1977 – present
Associated acts Suncokret, Bulevar, Propaganda, Idoli, Krstić & Šaper & Unutrašnja Imperija, Dejan Cukić & Spori Ritam Band, Kerber, The Glissers, Bilja Krstić & Bistrik Orchestra, TeodulIja, Kal, Divine Sound

Branko Isaković is a Serbian bass player born in Valjevo in 1958. He was a member of notable rock bands active in former Yugoslavia. He closely collaborates with Dejan Cukić and Bilja Krstić and has his own projects TeodulIja and Divine Sound, focusing on ambiental, ethno and spiritual music.

Biography

Isaković was born in Valjevo in 1958 and moved to Belgrade in 1961. His first interests in music came about 1970 when his school friend, today well known guitar player and producer Dušan "Duda" Bezuha needed a rhythm guitarist for his rhythm and blues band. Having finished the Sixth Belgrade high school Isaković joined the acoustic rock band Suncokret as a replacement for Bata Sokić who went to serve the army. Isaković left the band in 1978.

With former Tilt members Dejan Cukić (vocals) and Predrag Jakovljević (guitar), guitarist Nenad Stamatović, Isaković formed Bulevar. The band got the name "Bulevar" because all of the members lived near The Boulevard Of Revolution in Belgrade. The band performed as an opening act for Riblja Čorba including the September 1, 1979 appearance which was one of the band's major appearances. In the meantime the band Zvuk Ulice disbanded and their keyboard player Dragan Mitrić joined the band. Soon after the band, with the help of Riblja Čorba guitarist Momčilo Bajagić recorded their first single "Moje bezvezne stvari", but due to the illness of the president Josip Broz Tito, it was released in 1980 by Jugoton. The next single "Nestašni dečaci" became one of the anthems of New Wave music in Yugoslavia and was included on the Jugoton compilation Svi marš na ples!. In the meantime, the band started writing material for their debut record which was released through PGP RTB records in 1981. Loš i mlad was produced by the band themselves with the help of Tahir Durhali. The next album Mala noćna panika did not get a live tour as Mitrić, Stamatović and Cukić had to go to serve the army. The last concert the band held was in Skopje in 1982 and ceased to exist. Mitrić and Isaković joined the off project band Propaganda and released one album, Apatija javnosti in 1982. Isaković, beside bass, also played rhythm guitar.

After Bulevar disbanded Isaković went to Idoli, as a replacement for Zdenko Kolar who went to serve the Yugoslav People's Army, the band was about to record a new album. Idoli members went to London and with producer Bob Painter recorded Čokolada. The album was a high success and was sold in about 350,000 copies. When Čokolada tour started, the relationship between the band members became colder and after the Ljubljana show, due to a quarrel, Idoli disbanded. Isaković together with Zdenko Kolar recorded bass sections on the Šest dana juna soundtrack album which was released as an Idoli record. In 1986 Isaković went to serve the army and on his returned joined the Krstić & Šaper backing band Unutrašnja Imperija and recorded the Poslednja mladost u Jugoslaviji album released by Jugoton in 1987. Later he toured with Bisera Veletanlić in the USSR and employed as a fireman in Belgrade.

When Dejan Cukić left Bajaga & Instruktori he decided to start a solo career and formed his backing band Spori Ritam Band. The lineup featured Isaković on bass, Dragoljub Đuričić on drums, Dragan Mitrić on keyboards, Saša Lokner on snare drums and Safet Petrovac on guitar. Together they released the Spori ritam album in 1987. He left Spori Ritam Band in 1989. Together with Dragoljub Đuričić, Isaković went to Kerber, hard rock band from Niš. With Kerber he recorded live album 121288 and studio album Peta strana sveta. He left the band in 1992 and returned to Cukić's Spori Ritam Band and played until 2003.

In 1993 Isaković moved to Prague where he worked in a toy factory. When he came back to Yugoslavia, he appeared in the movie Underground. During a trip to India Isaković got interested into ambiental and ethnic music. In 1996 he formed The Glissers with Ekatarina Velika keyboard player Margita Stefanović and Marija Mihajlović from Spori Ritam Band. This is the first time Isaković used a computer for recording which made him more interested in computer technology.

In 1997 came out the Dejan Cukić & Spori Ritam Band live album Unplugged recorded live in Novi Sad. At the same time Isaković met Ljuba Ninković who used to be the frontman of a famous acoustic band S Vremena Na Vreme. Together they recorded soundtracks for theater plays and commercial and TV music. The two with Bilja Krstić recorded the album Bistrik on a Pentium I computer in 1999. Together they formed the Bistrik Orchestra which became Bilja Krstić's backing band. The album was a huge success and the band toured Brazil, Russia, France, Italy and Greece. The following year Dejan Cukić recorded a soundtrack for the Divlji med play which is actually a cover album of Bob Dylan's songs with lyrics in Serbian language.

In 2001 with Ivica Stojanović, a friend from the First Belgrade Singers Company, Isaković started a project TeodulIja which was a combination of ethnic music and Christian Orthodox spiritual music. They released the Priče iz davnina CD in 2002. Bilja Krstić & Bistrik Orchestra participated the soundtrack album for Zona Zamfirova in 2001 and in 2003 released a studio album Zapisi.

The Romani music band Kal recorded their debut album in 2005 with Isaković on bass. The self-titled album came out in 2006 through B92 records and Asphalt Tango Records. In the meantime Isaković started his own project Divine Sound which is a healing ambiental music band. The album Order of Love came out in April, 2005. It was created as music background for spoken word meditations by Vlado Ilić as part of family system therapy, following Dr Bert Hellinger's Systemic Constellations method. The CD contains five meditative compositions enriched by the voice of Marija Mihajlović and native flute played by Milinko Ivanović. In September, 2005 Bilja Krstić & Bistrik Orchestra started recording a new album released in 2007 entitled Tarpoš. A new TeodulIja album Vino istine came out in 2007.

At the moment Isaković is composing, arranging, producing and recording new material for his musical project. He mostly works in his home studio in Belgrade.

Discography

With Suncokret

Singles

With Bulevar

Studio albums

Singles

Various artists compilations

With Propaganda

Studio albums

With Idoli

Main article: Idoli discography

With Krstić & Šaper

Studio albums

With Dejan Cukić

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

With Kerber

Studio albums

Live albums

With Bilja Krstić

Studio albums

With Teodulija

Studio albums

With Kal

Studio albums

With Divine Sound

Studio albums

External links and references

See also

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