Trotakt Projekt

Trotakt Projekt was a Croatian new wave band from Metković, a multimedia group of musicians, sculptors, painters, designers, photographers and architects whose aim was to bring rock music, fashion and visual style together in one project. The songs were written by guitarist Jurica "Jure" Popović, born in Metković on 24 September 1958, and the singer was Matija Vuica, who had been studying in Zagreb since 1978. As the members moved to Zagreb to study, the band moved with them; the line-up included Jašar Murtezani on bass, Anri Leontenko on drums, Zlatko Volarević on keyboards and Blažko Mijić on guitar.

The band made its name by winning JURM (Jugoslavenski rock moment), the contest for new bands run by the magazine Polet, with a cassette of six or seven demo songs recorded on a cassette recorder. Their first concert of their own, at Zagreb's Kulušić in 1981, was a multimedia show that included Vuica's first fashion collection, and on stage she stood out in clothes she made from dyed bed sheets. In 1983 they played the rock night of the Opatija festival.

In 1984 they recorded an album, Blago tonirano, for Jugoton, but the label released only two singles, "Rolana" / "Ja želim nešto drugo" and "Zaplešimo" / "CDDA". Both sold well, and Vuica remembers them topping the Yugoslav charts, but the album never came out; "Zaplešimo" also gave its name to a Jugoton compilation of domestic hits. From 1984 to 1986 most of the men were away doing military service, and the band played rarely, recording songs only for radio.

At the start of 1990 Vuica, Popović and Murtezani completed their own studio, renamed the band Gracia and released its first album on their own label, Magic Music. The war interrupted their plans, with all the members volunteering in the defence around Metković. Gracia went on to records such as Vrijeme snova (1993) and Jer tu ima neki crni vrag (1994), with the hit duet "Ljubi me strasno" with Vinko Coce.

The story of Trotakt Projekt, a band Vuica feels was overlooked for being ahead of its time, was told in the documentary "RIP (Repriza izgubljene priče)", shown on HRT, and in 2011 Croatia Records released R.I.P. (Repriza izgubljene priče) as a 2CD/DVD set. Popović and Vuica both received the town of Metković's Narona award for culture for 2015. Jurica Popović died in Zagreb on 28 December 2023.