BORGHESIA

In 1950, the French writer Jean Genet (1910 – 1986) made his only film, “Un Chant d’Amour”. Up until mid-1970s the movie was effectively banned. Borghesia started composing the soundtrack for this film in 1986, when Ljubljana was one of the hubs of urban subculture in Europe. At the time, the city was teeming with alternative civil rights movements, feminism, and peace movements; it saw the founding of the first gay organisation in Eastern Europe and the first gay film festival in Europe. These events were endorsed by Borghesia’s album “Their Laws, Our Lives”, dedicated to alternative civil rights movements.

The music on Borghesia’s “Un Chant d’Amour” is the product of jam sessions recorded directly to a cassette tape with very basic equipment: a Roland 707 drum machine, a Casio CZ1000 synthesizer, a Solton tape echo and a mixing table. The result is brutal minimalism echoing filthy prison cell walls, culminating in an hallucinatory just-under-20-minute delirium. The gay topic is here merely a metaphor for the control over pleasure taken by a repressive state apparatus, which is currently present to no smaller degree than in 1950 or 1986, as we have been forced to endure a curfew from 21:00 to 06:00, with all the GLAM institutions, music venues, and sport facilities closed.

“Un Chant d’Amour” is another record perfectly fitting the musical history of the band and, once again, exhibiting the elusiveness of Borghesia in terms of genre.

After 35 years, Borghesia unearthed the original cassette tape and edited the recordings. The album features samples from two compositions by Borghesia guitarist Bekko (Sašo Benko). 

(label info)