Ansambel Vrisk

In 1995, Ansambel Vrisk started sharing their love for beautiful Slovenian folk music, but not just with fans in Slovenia. They were also touring Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, U.S. and Canada. Since their beginnings, they won several awards for their songs and recorded 4 cassettes and 3 CDs.


The song below is about Slovenian folk hero, stout fellow - Martin Krpan. Following is my summary of the story about Martin Krpan z Vrha pri Sveti Trojici (written by Fran Levstik back in 1858):

Martin Krpan made his living smuggling English salt on his skinny mare colt. To Martin Krpan's greatest disappointment, the emperor in Vienna couldn't solve his biggest problem (giant, named Brdavs, who already killed all of the emperor's strongest and bravest noble men) without his help. Although annoyed, he did emperor a favor and took care of Brdavs - once and for all. In exchange, he could get almost anything but only wanted and received the permit to import English salt freely for the rest of his life. :)

Moja lepa Belokranjka (video below) is one of the awarded songs. Lyrics are telling the story about a beautiful but foxy musician's girlfriend from Bela Krajina.

Čas beži (translation: time passing by fast) is the name of the next video below. The members of Ansambel Vrisk are:

• Beti Stopar - singing
• Jože Šarc - singing
• Jernej Tišler - contrabass and singing
• Rok Fojkar - guitar and singing
• Jože Avbar - accordion - and the boss

Ansambel Vrisk - Enkrat v življenju (translation: for once in my life)

The song on this last video Gobarska pesem (below) is dedicated to mushroom gatherers - and love, of course...

Ansambel Vrisk also has a song, named Button Box, most likely inspired by their U.S./Canadian tour (guessing). Button box is called "diatonična harmonika" or, even more often, "frajtonar’ca" in Slovenian language. Here are the lyrics of Button Box in Slovenian:

BUTTON BOX
Besedilo (lyrics): Majda Rebernik
Glasba (music): Jože Avbar
(Moja lepa Belokranjka)


IZ POZABE VZETA B'LA, JE MED LJUDI ZAŠLA,
DANES JIH VELIKO JE, KI NA NJO IGRA.
VSEDLA SE V SRCA JE, NAVDUŠILA LJUDI,
KJER VESELO JE POVSOD FRAJTONAR'CA ZVENI.

HEJ! BUTTON BOX JE ŠKATLICA,
KI VELIKO GUMBOV IMA,
SLOVENSKA JE HARMONIKA,
JI PRAVIMO FRAJTONAR'CA.
ZRAVEN BERDA, KLARINET,
TO SLOVENSKI JE TERCET,
KI JE STAR ŽE VRSTO LET,
GA POZNA ZDAJ CELI SVET.

ŠLA ČEZ LUŽO K ROJAKOM NAŠIM JE,
BUTTON BOX SO REKLI JI, NA NJEJ UČILI SE.
SPOMINI LEPI NA VAŠ STARI KRAJ
S PESMIJO SLOVENSKO SO VRNILI SE NAZAJ.


Learn more about Ansambel Vrisk at their website: http://www.ansambel-vrisk.com/

More samples of their music at:
http://www.ansambel-vrisk.com/index.php?option=com_musicbox&Itemid=33&catid=14

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