Janko Nilović – Soul Impressions

Let’s stretch the boundaries of what this blog covers by just a little. Soul Impressions doesn’t come from the classic Ex-YU scenes we’ve discussed previously. It wasn’t recorded in Sarajevo, Zagreb, or Belgrade, and it wasn’t pressed by Jugoton or Diskoton. And yet, I’d argue it belongs here — maybe not geographically, but spiritually. Janko Nilović, the man behind the record, is of Montenegrin and Greek descent, born in Istanbul and settled, for most of his life, in Paris.

Best known for his vast catalogue of library music — the kind originally made for TV, film, and radio — Nilović built a career on crafting records that tell stories without words. Pressed in small batches and never intended for mass audiences, his releases have become prized collector’s items. Soul Impressions, released in 1975, is one such grail — dusty, obscure, and expensive. The kind of album you spot on the holy moly shelves of vinyl obsessives. (If you follow Noble Records, you’ve seen it.)

Musically, it’s a warm, genre-blending journey. Jazz-funk forms the backbone, but Nilović’s palette stretches into psychedelic rock, cinematic soul, and grandiose prog. It’s the 1970s on wax: wah-wah guitars, hypnotic flutes, moody Hammond, swanky brass. Rich in instrumentation and warm in tone, it’s endlessly replay-able.

Some compositions lock into tight grooves — sharp, stylish, not far off from Isaac Hayes’ Shaft soundtrack. Others drift into more melancholic, nostalgic terrain, evoking empty countrysides or wistful goodbyes. There’s narrative in the music itself, which makes sense given how Nilović’s work soundtracked so much of 1970s European television. Decades later, that same music found new life through hip hop. Nilović has been sampled by Dr Dre, Jay-Z, Raekwon, and Joey Bada$$ — a remarkable legacy for a composer once operating in near anonymity.

That sample history is worth pausing on. Nilović’s Impressions series — of which this album is a part — has quietly shaped more modern music than most realise. Jay-Z’s D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune), built around Nilović’s In the Space (from Psyc Impressions), earned them both a Grammy. It’s a surreal collision: a Montenegrin-born composer raised in Paris influencing the sound of 21st-century rap. But that’s the magic of Nilović’s work — it’s internationally timeless.

You can enter the album anywhere, but “Drug Song” might be the gateway for most new listeners. Funkadelic in feel, psychedelic but stylish, with a hypnotic flute line that practically coils around you. Nilović himself once said:

“There is a little of everything in this piece; I am very surprised by the success it has had but very happy that it continues to interest people from all countries.”

Elsewhere, tracks like “Soul Impressions” and “Black Swan Lake” show his range — from psychedelic funk to tight, progressive, darker orchestrations. The sequencing is smart, the moods dynamic. And even without lyrics, the album never fades into the background.

That said, it’s not without its imperfections. The genre-hopping might feel disjointed to some. A few tracks don’t land quite as firmly. But like the best library records, it leaves space for your imagination to fill in the blanks.

Soul Impressions is a record made by a composer with one foot in the Balkans and the other in every record bin from Paris to Harlem. It’s not a classic in the traditional Ex-YU sense, but it’s a perfect example of the broader creative diaspora this blog celebrates. Funky, cinematic, psychedelic — and most of all, deeply soulful.