Laibach Share New Track 'The Engine Of Survival'

LAIBACH have shared new track “The Engine of Survival” ahead of a series of live dates that include several rare performances in October of their long-awaited symphonic multimedia collaboration with Iranian composers and performers, Alamut. The concept is based on a story from eleventh-century Persia as told by the Slovene writer Vladimir Bartol (1903 – 1967) and debuted last year. In November, the collective will embark on a third part of a European Love is Still Alive tour.

“The Engine of Survival”, originally written by Laibach collaborator and backing vocalist Donna Marina Mårtensson, was rearranged by Laibach who titled it “The Engine of Survival”, referring to the lyric (“Love is the only Engine of Survival”) in Leonard Cohen’s famous track, “The Future”, which was recently reinterpreted by the band. “The Engine of Survival” also links back to their current project, Love is Still Alive, and their recent score for Iron Sky - The Coming Race, the film soundtrack for the comic sci-fi action film of the same name. 

The video for “The Engine of Survival” references a famous conceptual performance by Raša Todosijević titled 'Was ist Kunst, Marinela Koželj?'. Dragoljub “Raša” Todosijević is a Serbian artist from the first generation of neo-avant-garde artists of the so-called New Art Practice of the 1970s, one of the most prominent political performative artists of former Yugoslavia, alongside Marina Abramović. His conceptual works relate to rudimentary questions of history and our relationship to ideologies.

“Was ist Kunst, Marinela Koželj?” is a video recording of one of a series of performances entitled ‘Was ist Kunst?’, which translates to “What is Art?”. It was conducted by Todosijević and his wife Marinela Koželj between 1976 and 1981 in various cities, situations and surroundings.

In each performance, the artist repeats the same question in German: ‘Was ist Kunst?’ and his raised voice recalls repressive techniques of police interrogation, evoking the traumatic experience of the Yugoslav public who, at that time, still remembered scenes of Gestapo torture and the brutality of German occupation in the Second World War. The artist repeats the same question until he reaches a point of total exhaustion and loses his voice. ‘Was ist Kunst?’ is an emblematic work by Raša Todosijević representing one of the most significant displays of conceptual art in the twentieth century, now part of the Tate's collection.

Laibach formed in the then-Yugoslavian industrial town of Trbovlje. Founded in the year that the country’s founding father Tito died, the band rose to fame to become one of the most internationally-acclaimed bands to have come out of the former Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe and for their performance in North Korea in 2015. In 2019 they released a Laibachian interpretation of The Sound of Music, conceived during their trip to North Korea and in 2020 celebrated four decades with Laibach Revisited.

An album of music from the acclaimed theatrical production Wir sind das Volk (ein Musical aus Deutschland) based on the writings of Heiner Müller (1929 -1995) followed in 2022 and the band announced recently that diplomatic negotiations are underway for a performance in Tehran of Alamut, an original symphonic work composed in collaboration with Iranian composers and performers.

LAIBACH – LOVE IS STILL ALIVE TOUR – 2023:

11/7/2023 - Luxembourg, Den Atelier, LUX
11/8/2023 - London, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, UK
11/9/2023 - Coesfeld, Fabrik, DE
11/10/2023 - Heerlen, Poppodium Nieuwe Nor, NL
11/12/2023 - Malmö, Moriska Paviljongen, SE
11/14/2023 - Amsterdam, Melkweg, NL
11/15/2023 - Nuremberg, Z-Bau, DE
11/17/2023 - Glauchau, Stadttheater, DE
11/18/2023 - Katowice, P23, PL
11/19/2023 - Warsaw, Progresja, PL
11/20/2023 - Prague, Hybernia, CZ
11/21/2023 - Vienna, Arena, AT
11/22/2023 - Bratislava, Majestic Club, SK
11/23/2023 - Cluj-Napoca, FORM Space, RO
11/24/2023 - Bucharest, Quantic Club, RO
11/25/2023 - Bitola, NI Center for Culture, MK
11/26/2023 - Sofia, Pirotska 5 Event Center, BG
11/28/2023 – Novi Sad, Serbian National Theatre, RS
11/29/2023 - Mokrin, Mokrin House, RS

Photo credit: Ciril Jazbec

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