Josipa Lisac is a phenomenon of the Croatian musical scene. She is one of those persons who managed to elevate the level of emotions and consciousness of the audiences in this part of the world, while often remaining misunderstood by doing so. These are the elements that contain her mysteriousness or, perhaps, our own ignorance?

This text does not intend to make sensational discoveries about this well known artist, but rather to introduce the eight flowers, the eight sensational CDs and audio cassettes of one exemplary artistic career. The logic made us to publish these sonic bearers in a relative chronological order, although sometimes we had to deliberately change that order, so that we could come nearer to the same musical expression of the artist. We faithfully reproduced the basic characteristics of every one of the previously published albums so that the audiences may get as wide as impression as possible about the previous sound bearers.

This first anthology of its kind in the Croatian discography was a demanding publishing work, which will be completed with a monograph, due to be published in the early months of 1998. This shows the publisher's aspiration to deal in the appropriate way with the outstanding artists on the Croatian musical scene.

Josipa Lisac comprises in itself at the same time an artist and an icon, a person and an exotic, we could even go thus far to say, a witch, who casts her spells, but more to conceal than to flaunt. What is indisputable, however, is that everything she does and creates, she does with dignity, transforming the shapes and sounds and everything she touches. Transformation is, therefore, the basic constant of her stylish behavior and of her whole career. On the other hand, the thing that surprises us above all is the capability of her vocal transformations, which are indeed very impressive, so in that very transformation, in the intensity of that alteration and splendor she manages to convert night into day, darkness into light.

The evocation of the person and the career of Josipa Lisac will certainly lead to several problems, not only in the methodology of these presentations, but also in its rhythm, since her rich career confirmed itself over the years on devant de la scene, on center stage, that is, in the rich concert and discographical activities, and all that in the fullness of the artistic and esthetical expression. The critics followed her creativeness with amplitude, only to accept her with an acclaiming unanimity. What is more, even her detractors became her avid supporters.

Over the years Josipa Lisac surrounded herself with an esteem which by its definition protected her and put her away from all the possible scandals, so the artist managed to obtain without any difficulties her real title - la grande dame of the Croatian musical scene. The artist's wish for the special musical expression, the precise choreography of her performances, is accompanied by her search for the visual and esthetic charge. In the shapes of Josipa Lisac one can find as much flavor as in those sensational shapes of Marlene Dietrich playing the singer Bijou in the movie Destroy Rides Again, Greta Garbo playing Rita Cavallini in the movie Romance or the dancers from Bali from the movie Terre de Volupté. Obviously, this artist wants to surprise us over and over again with every new day and never leaves us indifferent. In Josipa Lisac's interpretation, in her conception of the musical scene, one can clearly see the whole, rather than the separated details. Her voice, its vibrations, its charge and modulation, find a counterpoint in the music that follows or leads, as well as in the selected shapes of costumes, hairstyles, stage movement and all that makes un tout, a whole. Josipa Lisac confirms this whole, without an exception, for several decades. For this conception of the whole the merit must also go to Karlo Metikos, whose role of an author and a producer, and finally, a companion who wrote numerous compositions suited for the artist, left a lasting mark in her artistic expression. This bond made the artist stronger, helping her to create her own stile, as well as her castles in the sand, which helped her defend her expression. In the last few years her distance from the rest of the world became even more noticeable. She built another castle of secret between herself and the reality in which she lives, so that, in the words of dre Maltroux "all the life becomes a mystery, when it is questioned by the pain". By practicing the most profound artistic shapes and her own of thinking, which, of course, goes in pair together, Josipa Lisac, persisted on hew own unique path. The artist treats us with the luxuriance of the perfection in the time that is definitely not luxuriant. She examines, chooses, makes her judgment and all that in the end may seem irrelevant, almost nonchalant. But this is just an illusion, since her concentration at that very point shows that her rigorousness has never been greater or stronger and that her creative juices have not ceased to flow. This was one of the reasons we compiled all of her performances, not overlooking even the smallest bits.

We are giving them to the audience as a piece of history of the Croatian music, naturally, as one of its most important parts, which is at the same time, a question, a measure, a constant, a hope and above all, an elegance and a life.

ANTE GLIBOTA      
Zagreb, December 15, 1997