Zrelo klasje (Ripe Ears)
To rummage about national tradition, to search for its songs, to seek out what carries inside itself its finest, nevertheless the richest hues of images, events and stories from the past, almost forgotten life, is yet of particular happiness.
Therefore individual members of the group Zrelo klasje oganised themselves and started performing already nearly 50 years ago. Nevertheless, only in 2005 they founded an autonomous singing group, which preserves national tradition of one of the most beautiful Slovenian provinces – a northeastern part of Slovenske gorice. They sing authentic folk songs originating Ormož region, and they preserve traditional flower-making from paper. At special occasions churches and chapels are decorated with their ever-green wreathes. They also make wreathes from ears and meadow-flowers.
Group members have collected and published over a hundred folk songs in a booklet titled Šopek/Bunch. The collecetd songs are songs about love and wine, joy and grief, as well as about happiness and poverty. However, the written folk song are merely a first step, words only, fragile lines of pen on paper, waiting for a singer to sing them. Therefore the singers have recorded the selected songs on CD with a simple but significant title Zrelo klasje /Ripe Ears. As though they had known it's high time for harvest, for ears might fall off, for precious grains fall onto earth, they die uselessly unless they are harvested by reapers, and beaten soundly by men, unless the husk is separated from grain, and grains are grinded...
The core of the folk song lies in its singing. And singers of the group Zrelo Klasje can sing those precious souvenirs of the past in its typical folk polyphonics. They put in life and emotions, which inspire magnificient feelings within us – the Slovenes, who can understand the lyrics, as well as in foreigners, who vaguely anticipate its richness through melodic quaility of the tune.
The members of the group Zrelo klasje are: Marija Pongračič (president), Katarina Ivanuša, Rozalija Kukec, Dominik Pongračič (mentor), Pavla Prapotnik, Anica Puklavec, Marjan Rajh and Božena Tomšič.
This year they have had or are planning to have more than 50 performances, amongst which two taking place in Berlin, respectively.