32. Spider

When Stringer was finished I had to find a place on stage for it. As our stage is already full of equipment I decided to incorporate it into the Spider, a construction which used to hold our cymbals. The more I thought how to do that, the more clearer become that the whole Spider needs upgrade. I wanted to give the player more options so I also included an e-drum, new coil and three axes for sound effects and more dangerous outlook. And I also changed the base from rectangular into triangular.
Voila!

31. Plamen v prsih / Flame In the Chest

The most spectacular production with The Stroj collective this year took place at Ljubljana Castle. Regarding the process of creation and lots of pyrotechnics on the stage we decided to name it Plamen v prsih / Fire In The Chest.
No PR bullshit will follow, just some photos and a video. I hope you're gonna feel some excitement and thrill we had on stage during the performance.

27. Operation DEWESoft

It was s month ago when Janez, a colleague and collaborator of mine, invited me to join him for a meeting at DEWESoft company from Trbovlje, Slovenia. Even if you're not from around here, you might have heard about Trbovlje in regards to Laibach, internationally renown alternative band which originally gathered in this industrial town almost four decades ago.

 Well, if we state that Laibach once put Trbovlje on the artistic map of the world, it is the DEWESoft who does that for Trbovlje on the global technological map. In short, company produces high-end measuring devices and develops special software which visualizes output data. Let me just mention that their systems were used on Space Shuttle launch pad, on International Space Station and for launching of Ariane rockets - you’d probably get the right impression on how very serious and passionate about their jobs these guys are.

So. It was quite an experience to sit at the table in their conference room and hear about how could we helped them. They were in midst of preparations for an annual conference for their partners and someone got an idea about a special musical performance, with music prepared especially for the occasion. And, for things not to be too simple, song has to feature one of their measuring modules as an instrument. Good. Things already felt interesting although we haven’t put down a single note yet. In fact, we never really use notes when composing, what we really needed at the moment was a place to experiment and rehearse with our retro futuristic gear.
In short: no problem. They calmly gave us an office in the basement and even door cards so we could come and work anytime as we wanted. As a long time freelancer I got scared for a moment that I got stuck with a regular job.

We had two weeks to accomplish the mission, so we brought basic equipment to the office and started right away. For the first few days there was not much to hear or show, since we spent it mostly on discussions about the composition and its performance with some loud beats thrashing through the building from time to time. And, the more the composition grew in our heads, the more gear appeared in the office. Which eventually become smaller and smaller. Cables, instruments, sound effects and metal rigs lying everywhere around, as always when we dive in the creative process. After few days, when we finally completed our project in the office was completely filled with kick, two toms, two snares, two drum pads, theremin, typewritter, efektor, dozens of cymbals, bells and coils, few effects, metal sheet, computer and, of course, our good ’ol friend, an angle grinder. Lots of toys for two pairs of hands.

The following days we finally took the sticks and tools in our hands and the basement area become loudly unsuitable for any serious work or even talk. Things couldn't get unnoticed and people started popping up, curiously checking what's going on. I appeared that Janez and I became quite an intriguing amusement during their work time. All of the guys seemed to be engineers, with some of them turned up to be musicians, so they quickly got an idea how to attach some sensors to our gear and visualize sound vibrations on their machines.

Finally, we had to incorporate one of those measuring devices into our composition. So, our team was briefly joined by new member Sašo who reprogramed their module into some kind of a rhythm machine which took a lead in a part of the composition.

Days flew by quickly as more and more fun escalated in our rehearsal room. One day we had an opportunity to meet Jure Knez and Andrej Orožen, the founders of the company. Duo, always sparkling with bright ideas, became quite enthusiastic about our work. It didn’t take long as they proposed a wish to perform with group of coworkers at the end of the conference. At first, quite surprised by their suggestion, we quickly picked ourselves up, got additional 20 barrels and held a special three-day workshop for them, to prepare their gig. Believe me, smashing a  metal barrel with XL wrench is not a piece of cake but Jure and Andrej didn't hesitate to get their hands dirty and easily learned the trick.

If you are interested in latest DEWESoft achievements, you will find the whole conference at a link bellow. Our performance starts on 27:00 and DEWESoft tribe rocks the place at the very end. Twice!

25. The Stroj celebrates it's 20th anniversary

For the closing event of the succesfull exhibition about our work, we decided to perform live and loud. So we invited our former members to join us at the final part of performance. For the moment it seemed like they never left the band. The force is still alive and The Stroj is ready for another decade.

The Stroj collective would like to thank to Coal Mining Museum Velenje, director Stojan Špegel and the crew of Kunigunda Festival for their support on this project. 
Big thanks also goes to Arnold Marko, Tina Dervarič and Matej Loredan who made the video.

24. Grandioso

During preparations for The Stroj's anniversary concert in Coal Mining Museum complex in Velenje, we also managed to release The Stroj's latest single Grandioso. Video was made by Stane Špegel and beside some wild shots from our live performances it also contains some captures from the exhibition opening.

Free download is available here:
https://soundcloud.com/the-stroj/grandioso

23. Force of Sound / Rhythm of Time: The Stroj 1997 – 2017

Exhibition was held in industrial invironment of Coal Mining Museum of Slovenia in Velenje. Beside photographs, instruments and personal items we also invited our former members and collaborators to exhibit some of their works, connected with our story.

The Stroj collective would like to thank to Stojan Špegel, the curator of the museum, for invitation and assistance, Stane Špegel for his live act and Jure Longyka who held the opening.

22. Resonant snare drum

For a long time I wondered to make my own snare drum, but It wasn't before I found a proper car rim to fit the purpose.

The rim needed some fine adjustment to get the exact diameter, then I got to work to drill all those holes. As the body of the snare is not plain it wasn't very easy to attach drum lugs, but my solution worked well.

At the end I also attached a pickup to the body of the drum so I can trigger stronger hits and get hybrid sound while playing.