Bruji

Bruji is a band from Burgenland in eastern Austria that calls its own music "Krowodn-Rock". It is on Muzika-Balkan because its members are Burgenland Croats, the Croatian minority of Austria's easternmost province, and most of its songs are sung in Burgenland Croatian, often mixed with German. The band grew up in the village of Veliki Borištof (Großwarasdorf in German) and is still a Burgenland band today. Its name comes from the Burgenland Croatian word brujati, "it hums, it booms".

Bruji grew out of the covers band The Brew, founded in the late 1960s by Rudi and Poli Berlaković and Joža Linzer from Veliki Borištof and soon joined by guitarist Joško Vlasich and organist Ignac Karall. A turning point came on the jukebox of a village inn, where they found the Yugoslav hit "Marijana". It inspired them to add songs from Yugoslavia to their programme, something no other band in Austria did then. Their first single, "Rozmarija raste", turned a Burgenland Croatian folk song into ethno-pop, an idea that Bijelo dugme would take up later in Yugoslavia.

In the late 1970s new members such as keyboard player Toni Perušić joined, the Krowodn-Rock sound was born, and in 1980 the group took the name Bruji. The albums Gemma Krowodn schaun (1980) and Nema Problema (1983) brought louder songs about life as a Burgenland Croat, which young people in the community soon sang as their own unofficial anthems. The bilingual single "Sviraj brate, Tambure" even reached the Ö3 charts in the 1980s.

Daham (1990), Simo tamo – Hinundher (1995), Kein Wort Deutsch (1998) and Bruji live (2012) followed. Violinist Toni Stricker played on their haunting version of the folk song "Gusla mi se j' potrla", and Willi Resetarits sang with them on "Muž kod puž". Bruji toured Austria, played concerts across Europe and appeared on two charity albums beside EAV, Wolfgang Ambros and Hubert von Goisern. The cultural centre KUGA in Großwarasdorf grew up around the band.

The line-up today is Joško Vlasich on vocals, Rudi Karall on guitar, Werner Karall on bass, Toni Perušić on keyboards and button accordion and Klaus Bittner on drums; at unplugged shows tamburicas come out too. The playlist holds their records, from "Rozmarija raste" and "Gemma Krowodn schaun" to "Šuševo" and "Vila".