Boa

Boa is a Croatian pop rock group from Zagreb, Yugoslavia, active from 1979 to 1994. The band is associated with the ex-Yugoslav rock scene and is made up of Mladen Malek and Slavko Remenarić.

Formation and early activity

The group begins in Zagreb in 1974, when its founders, Mladen Puljiz and Slavko Remenarić, move from classical music towards rock, drawing on art rock and related acts such as Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, David Bowie, Roxy Music and Peter Gabriel. Its concert activity starts in 1979 with a line-up of Mladen Puljiz on keyboards and vocals, Slavko Remenarić on guitar, Igor Šoštarić on drums and Damir Košpić on bass guitar.

1980s work and stylistic shift

Boa moves towards the New Romantic sound and fashion. After the release of its debut album for Suzy in 1981, readers of the Yugoslav magazine Džuboks vote it the best upcoming act of the year. The album Ritam strasti follows, and around one hundred concerts across former Yugoslavia increase the band’s profile. The next album, Govor tjela, includes several successful songs, but the group then enters a creative crisis and pauses activity.

Return in the 1990s

Boa resumes activity in 1989 with a new rhythm section: drummer Paolo Sfeci, formerly of Aerodrom and Parni valjak, and bass player Zvonimir Bučević, a prominent session musician. In 1990 it releases Prvi Val and appears as a support act for David Bowie’s concert at Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb in front of more than 50,000 people. Two years later, the compilation 81-92 appears with live recordings and studio versions in new arrangements. It includes Zemlja, recorded in 1991 for the Rock za Hrvatsku project connected to the Croatian War of Independence.

Later releases and collaborations

In 1993, keyboard player Gojko Tomljanović joins the group. The following year it releases Kraj detinjstva, which features guest appearances by Josipa Lisac, Dino Dvornik and Vanna. The song Kao mir, a duet with Josipa Lisac, is nominated in two categories for the Croatian music award Porin. In 2002, Croatia Records issues integral CD versions of the first two albums, and this re-release wins Porin in the Re-release of the Year category. In 2004, the band releases Kao nekad, a compilation of songs from its third and fourth albums, with remastered tracks, revised arrangements on some songs, and bonus material including the experimental instrumental Boa Constrictor, which uses sound effects recorded by Puljiz and Remenarić in 1974 on an old Grundig two-track open-reel tape recorder.

Members and line-up details

The band’s credited members across its history include Mladen Puljiz, Slavko Remenarić, Igor Šoštarić, Damir Košpić, Paolo Sfeci, Zvonimir Bučević and Gojko Tomljanović. It remains active.