Recorded by Folke Rabe in Kuti and in Sarajevo in 1963. Folke Rabe's (1935–2017) symphonic work "Så att denna sång inte dör” (So that this song shall not die) is based on his own field recordings of folk music in the Bosnian mountain village of Kuti in 1963. Rabe's original recordings are presented here together with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's premiere of the work in 1999.
"The rumour had spread in the village, that foreigners had come who wanted to hear music, so for the next hour people gathered/... /Everyone in the village seemed to be either playing or singing - or both. The large room in Omer's brother's house was 6 x 3.5 m, and 40–50 people crowded there. Those who couldn't get a seat walked around in the snow outside and sang. What we were to be part of was a 'sijelo'; a village gathering with music.”
The quote is taken from a radio script that is part of Rabe's collection at the Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research. The music recorded in Kuti is an interesting example of a musical journey from the small village in southeastern Bosnia to the Stockholm Concert Hall, via the Research Centre, and back", writes Dan Lundberg, musicologist, author, and director general of the Swedish Performing Arts Agency, in the informative booklet for the CD edition of this album.
The village of Kuti was completely razed during the Bosnian War in the 1990’s, and now lives on only in the people's memories, and in the documented songs on this album.