No Smoking Orchestra

No Smoking Orchestra

The beginning of the story of the band matches with the one of Zabranjeno Pušenje, in the 80's in Sarajevo, and the one of Dr. Nele Karajlić.

At the time of Do you remember Dolly Bell ?, Emir Kusturica met the members of the rock band. They became friends, and he started to play with them occasionally, to record an album, or for concerts, to change his mind during two shootings.

When Yugoslavia imploded in 1991, the musicians separated and the group stopped for a while. The members still in Bosnia relaunched the band in Sarajevo and made several new albums. Those who left to Serbia, among which Nele Karajlić and violin player Dejan Sparavalo made a new album, joined Emir Kusturica back, and took a new name for the band : the No Smoking Orchestra, literal translation of Zabranjeno Pušenje. Emir's son, Stribor Kusturica also joined the band to play the percussions.

During the shooting of his film Black Cat, White Cat, Emir Kusturica called regularly his friend Nele Karajlić to ask him to compose occasionally, a techno song, a gypsy tune, a folk melody… After a while, Nele asked him : ”but tell me, Emir, who writes the music of your film, anyway ? - Well, it's you !”.

Since then, the No Smoking Orchestra has also written the music for each film of the director. In return, he made a documentary on them : Super 8 Stories.

Official website

www.thenosmokingorchestra.com

The band has also an official page on myspace and on facebook

The band


Dr. Nele Karajlić Leader, singer, lyricist, composer	Emir Kusturica ”Monsieur Cinéma”, ”Professor“ bass player, then guitar player, composer	Stribor Kusturica Drums

Zoran Marjanović ”Čeda, the guru“ Percussions	Dejan Sparavalo ”Leopold”, ”the judge“ Violin, composer	Glava Markovski ”the Head“ Bass

Drazen Janković ”Her Dralle Draugentaller“ Keyboards (brother of Nele)	Zoki Milošević Accordion	Neša Petrović ”Blackbird“ Sax

Goran Popović ”The pope“ Tuba	Ivica Maskimović Guitar

Discography

1984 : Das ist Walter
1985 : Dok cekas sabah sa sejtanom (Waiting for the sabbat with the devil)
1987 : Pozdrav iz zemlje Safari (Best wishes from the country of safaris)
1989 : Male price o velikoj ljubavi (Little story of a big love)
1997 : Ja nisam odavle
1998 : Black Cat White Cat - BOF
2000 : Unza Unza Time
2004 : Life is a miracle - BOF (includes a DVD with clips and film extracts)
2005 : Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires (CD, DVD)
2007 : Opera "Time of the Gypsies" (CD, DVD)
2009 : Best Of - Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra

A previously unreleased track ”Lost in the supermarket”, composed for the film Strawberries in the supermaket is available on the CD of ATTAC, available on Amazon.fr