Why the name Cosmic Sounds, the yellowness of the covers and the embossed twiddle design?
The name came out of the environment I was in for the last couple of decades and probably more. Searching for the right tunes I was always surrounded by and got struck by some records and artist who called their music 'Cosmic'. Not just literaly like Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes but also in explanation of what they do.

In 1996, inspired by Gilles Peterson's and Patrick (Cosmic Jam) Forge's radio shows, I started my own show in order to transfer all I had learned and my discoveries back to Belgrade, where I come from. I was recording it in London and sending it over there hoping that it might inspire new generations of explorers. The program got the name Cosmic Sounds and later on when I started the label I just kept the same name.

The logo for the label was just a 5-minute sketch that I did in PhotoShop trying to represent the endless Cosmic spiral. Quick spiral movement with a paintbrush and emboss effect and that's it. Yellow represents the sun, the source of life and here symbolises the importance of music to me. It was supposed to be just an image for the front cover of my album Space Runner. That was my second release but I liked it a lot and decided to keep it as the label's logo.

You say on the cover notes to 'Space Runner' that the title track was originally written for a presentation for an architectural practice, how did that come about?
Yes, this is how it all that started (my production). As an architect I was doing 3D animation presentations for all of my projects and playing them to clients as silent movies. It was kind of dull and the tension was too high. I needed some background music to make the whole experience more relaxing and enjoyable. To license something was too expensive for one-off occasions so I decided to do something on my own and it worked.

But how difficult was setting up on your own?
Uffff.. was? Still is and unfortunately getting even more and more difficult. It was difficult to start: unknown label, unknown artists and difficult to pronounce names, not very commercial music. Can't say distribution was fighting to get me. But the quality prevailed so the label survived somehow. And just when you think it's going to be OK then the global crisis starts. Home copying and free downloads are killing music. Not that people are downloading a lot of my stuff for free but there is too much free music around now (illegally). People don't have enough time to listen to all that they've downloaded to their ipods so they don't even think of going to shops in a search for something else; not to mention exploring some unknown territories. That's still done by a very few enthusiasts but very few. Thank you guys.

But there is a continuing and growing interest in the otherwise 'unknown'. JCR brought out their Modern Jazz from Eastern Germany 1957-69: Formation 60 (1998) compilation and then Polish Jazz the following year. In 2000, you kept the theme going with Rare Gems From Czechoslovakia. You then brought out Sunset Sunrise - Rare Gems from Bulgarian Vaults in 2002. Is there a bottomless pit of 'rare gems' to plunder and what are the labels/tunes we should be looking out for trips to Eastern European?
As a collector and explorer you hear from people what's good but also you have to go and buy some records just to see what they are. I was buying Eastern European jazz records like crazy in a search for the right stuff. Many of them were a waste of money; some of them had just an odd tune on it so for better archiving and easier overview and access I started doing 'The Best Of' CD-Rs for my own personal use. I had them for years. Claas [Brieler] from Jazzanova came once to visit me (before I started my label) and said that he's doing the same thing and planning to release a few compilations. He said, "You must release these as well". I wasn't even thinking of doing it but later on when I started my own production, met Dusko Gojkovic who gave me a suitcase with his old masters and I had all these compilations ready so I didn't have any choice but to start a label and make all these recordings available for a wider audience.

The Create Soul Brothers Radio Show has recently played one of your sets [see the tracklisting below 17th February]. Is this representative of your interests (i.e. all over the place but 'rare')?
Difficult to say. Basically I try to share information rather then entertain but not all the time. I guess others would be better at classifying what I do than myself. I just play music that I like. You are right; mostly I go for stuff that I think audience haven't had a chance to hear and I think deserves their attention.

There's a book that has come out recently called, 'This is Serbia Calling: Rock 'n' Roll Radio and Belgrade's Underground Resistance' by Matthew Collin. It claims even pre-internet, young Yugoslav's were ahead of their Eastern European brothers and sisters in their music/style/culture and uses radio station B-92 as the example to prove it. Did B-92 mean anything to you?
Yes, that's true because Yugoslavia was never part of the Eastern Block or any other. We were founders (Tito) of the Non-Aligned Movement. I guess that very few people knew that because whenever I travelled abroad further than Italy people asked me how did I get out of the country. At that time the YU passport was the most expensive on the black market because we didn't need a visa for any country in the world (neither East nor West) and we were free to travel anywhere. We are very curious people by nature, had access to many things so I guess we knew a lot. We both travelled a lot and people were coming to Yugoslavia. I guess my main inspiration, apart from records and radio was coming from live concerts in Belgrade where in 1970s I had the chance to see everyone from Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk to Earth Wind & Fire, James Brown and Ike & Tina Turner. At that time B-92 hadn't existed so my cult radio figures and educators were Sloba Konjovic (Studio B) and Rasa Petrovic (Beograd 202) whose programmes I used to listen to and tape regularly.

B-92 kicked in while I was in London and brought a great freshness to Belgrade's radio waves. Although their fame came out of political reasons they haven't neglected musical creativity and they gave chance to a local enthusiasts to share their knowledge. There is a vast of excellent specialist shows there and not just imports like Gilles Peterson's Worldwide and Coldcut's Solid Steel but also local heroes like DZUMBUS by Bojan Mitrovic (aka Painkiller Septet), BALANS / BALANÇO by Nebojsa Atanackovic (aka Jazzmate), TRANSGLOBAL JAZZ LOUNGE by Tatomir Toroman and few more including a electro-dub-abstract-jazz BELGRADEYARD SOUND SYSTEM and experimental-ethno-jazz-freestyle DISKO 3000 by Ring-Ring festival director Bojan Djordjevic (ringring@ptt.yu).

I first became aware of Cosmic Sounds after the Crate Soul Brothers brought out 'Swinging With Miss Goodnight' and then found their Internet radio show and you were on their tracklistings. How influential are Keyser & Shuriken in the region?
Keyser & Shuriken are in the first place great guys, doing their thing and doing it properly. They work synchronously in two directions by promoting local artists and letting the world know what is happening in their homeland (Hungary) and at the same time bringing the freshest sounds from all around the world to their territory and informing and inspiring people around them. Great job and all that in their free time.

They did a remix of 'Seu Paraiso' on Cosmic Sounds Remixed compilation that came out a couple of years ago; you did a remix, as did Nicola Conte, Belgradeyerd Sound System and others. Were those tracks your favourite tracks that had come out on Cosmic Sounds at the time?
The producers were able to choose their favourite track from the catalogue so it wasn't my selection apart of 'Quo Vadis Samba' that I always wanted to re-edit. Arkestra One appeared to be the most popular choice. Even Nicola Conte started remixing one of their tracks and then switched to Jerome Richardson keeping just a very short part of Nina Miranda's scat. He was the one who initiated the remix project by offering to do something for me because he likes what I do. Others quickly joined in and we got two great albums.

Your last two releases have been 12"s: Coxless Pair, 'Not Funny Any More/Insight' and Belgradeyard Sound System, 'Munchies'. They seem to retain that non-commercial feel but are both still new, fresh and vibrant
The last two 12"s are both just a preview for their respective forthcoming albums. Coxless Pair has progressed a lot since their first album that was a low-fi live recording released just to present that this kind of band exists and works in Belgrade and to indicate the direction. The second album is almost finished now and is a studio recording on a much higher level but still with the preserved energy and the honest way of expression. This 12" is just a small indication of what you might expect on this album. BGYSS also made noticeable progress since their first release on Belgrade's Burning Vol. 2 compilation by moving from a pure sample based production to a live band orientated both in production and gigs. I-Wolf did a great job on the B-side by giving us the first hybrid of ragga-muffin/free-jazz combination that I've ever heard. It's a daring combination that I wouldn't dream of and it works. BGYSS album is also in a finishing phase and should be ready sometime this year. Both 12"s got excellent reviews and support but unfortunately that hasn't helped the sales much. It's just not available in shops. Very few of them support what I do and I am very thankful to these few. Don't forget Tunes.co.uk (see links below) and there's a sound clip of the I-Wolf remix. More Austrian mutations.

In addition to these albums are there any other new releases planned?
I had a slow start to the year but now kicking back and I've got plenty in the pipeline. Starting off with two volumes of Rare Gems From Hungarian Vaults. One compilation by Tom Wieland and another by Keyser & Shuriken. Then a real gem from Yugoslavia, double LP by RTB Big Band from 1978 (big band funky fusion) and another one: previously unreleased Yugoslavian 1970s funky soundtrack The Gonners that I will release for the first time sometime in May-June 2005. On the new production side, in addition to the new albums by Coxless Pair and BGYSS, DJ Chile has been reactivated and a single might come out soon. We're also working on Yugoslavian and Russian Rare Gems Vol. 2.

You recently DJ'd at Further Out's Saturn Radio club night and it was a great success. "All those rare East-Euro jazz gems!" what are your top tunes at the moment?
Yes, I had a great time at Saturn Radio. One of the coolest places around. It felt like being at home and just playing your fav tunes and recent discoveries to your best friends without any obligation to entertain anyone. And, still everyone appeared to be entertained and enjoying it. Fantastic! I really enjoyed playing a couple of Yugoslavian 7"s from the mid 1970s, like Kornelije Kovac, 'Severni Vetar' (kind of Philly Sound funky soundtrack) and Zdenka Kovacicek, 'Kobra' ('The Ghetto' style tune) but also 'The Goners'.

Do you enjoy going to clubs?
I do actually. I am the one who usually comes to clubs as early as possible just to hear a DJ's first few records that he plays to an empty club and for his own pleasure to put him in a good mood. And the very first record is usually something like "hello my name is...". Tells a lot about DJ.

And now you can find out more about Zeljko as a DJ as he left such a big impression at Saturn Radio, he'll be doing it again every few months now (see details below). So get there early and keep buying the cosmic sounds of Cosmic Sounds. It's going to be a very big year for them.

Links
Cosmic Sounds
Cosmic Sounds at Tunes.co.uk
Belgradeyard Sound System – 'Munchies' (I-Wolf feat. DJ Collage Remix)
Belgradeyard Sound System gigs:
- Mar 10th – Pazi Skola, Belgrade /(band + special guests + video + dj sets)
- Mar 11th – FIST opening party @ FDU, Belgrade / SER (DJ)
- Mar 24th – Pazi Skola, Belgrade / SER (DJ)
Crate Soul Brothers – 'Swinging With Miss Goodnight' (Ohm Records (Italy))
Saturn Radio: 1st Monday of the month. Market Place, 11 Market Place, off Gt Portland St. London W1. 7pm-12am, free entry. Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus. Zeljko's gig was on 7th February 05 and Perry Hemus from Woodland Records turned up. Perry's "got some great new music planned and we've just confirmed him as a guest for Monday July 4th..." Richard E. Further Out.

Tracklisitng: 'Jazz Is The Word' with ZELJKO KERLETA (Cosmic Sounds)01. SONNY KNIGHT QUARTETTE - Let's Get It On (Aura)
02. HUGO MONTENEGRO - MacArthur Park (RCA Victor)
03. TED CURSON - Greasy As A Porkchop (Atlantic)
04. ST. TROPEZ JAZZ OCTET - Beech Breeze (Europa)
05. THE INDO JAZZMAN - Oriental Variations On A Christmas Theme (Saga)
06. HUGH MASEKELA - Part Of A WHole (Blue Thumb)
07. NEIL ARDLEY-IAN CARR-DON RENDEL - Persephone's Jive (Columbia)
08. CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO - Exponent Red (Thrill Jockey)
09. SANTI DEBRIANO - Trance Dance (Savant)
10. NORMAN CONNORS - The Creator (Arista)
11. LES DOUBLE SIX - Naima (Open)