🎧🏭 Dugmetara Revisited – three Mondays of sound & memory
In April, [BLOK] – Local Base for Culture Refreshment brings to Radiona a music workshop from its project “Trešnja trešti! Crumbs from the musical history and present of the neighbourhood”: DUGMETARA REVISITED, led by composer Ana Horvat. The workshop takes place on Mondays 13, 20 and 27 April 2026, from 18:00 to 20:00 at Radiona (Nova cesta 186, Zagreb), and invites you to listen back to a space that shifted from button factory to iconic rehearsal labyrinth for Zagreb’s alternative bands.
🎶 What is Dugmetara and why does it matter?
Once a button factory on Savska street, Dugmetara became, in the early 2000s, a vibrant, informal centre of music-making, providing cheap, somewhat hidden spaces for band rehearsals. For about a decade, punk, noise, metal, post‑punk, dub, indie rock, ambient and others echoed through its halls, shaping an off‑mainstream sound of the city. The workshop asks: how do we hear a place that no longer exists in its old form, but still resonates in memory and recordings?
🧩 How the workshop unfolds
Under the guidance of Ana Horvat – a composer devoted to electronics, interdisciplinary work and DIY/DIWO practices – the workshop is structured as a gradual immersion into Dugmetara:
Session 1: focusing on the history of Dugmetara and bands that rehearsed there – through archival materials, recordings and photos we enter the atmosphere and map its role for the neighbourhood and the scene.
Sessions 2 & 3: we deconstruct Dugmetara’s musical traces and reconstruct the sound of the space, working with pre‑recorded material and/or your own recordings, layering, editing and shaping sound.
Throughout the workshop, each participant creates their own soundwalk – a short audio story / personal interpretation of Dugmetara’s legacy, an electronic miniature bringing that sound world back to life.
💻 What you need & what you don’t
most important: curiosity and creative drive; ideally bring your own laptop and headphones
we’ll use audio editing software, but the workflow will be adapted to each participant’s level – from complete beginners to more experienced users
no instrumental skills, music education or prior knowledge of Dugmetara’s bands are required – though any information you have can enrich the shared pool.
📩 Registration, conditions & price
the workshop is free of charge
limited number of participants – and it’s important to attend all three sessions
apply via the online form no later than 9 April (Thursday)
for questions, write to blok@blok.hr
