Croatias Most Disturbing Musician (Satan Panonski)

today we're going to be talking about saturn pononski a man who very few people have heard of outside of croatia and parts of southeastern europe in fact the very little recognition he has in english-speaking parts of the world comes from a strange tagline that has been associated with his name the croatian gigi allen now if you've seen my video on gigi allen or just know anything about him then you'll know that this tagline is a very interesting description that definitely intrigued me and immediately i wanted to learn more that proved to be quite difficult however given the very limited documentation that has been done on this man with only one documentary made about him while he was alive which is now over three decades old and a handful of articles that were written about him but from the bits and pieces that i could gather it's clear that satan pononski had one of the most intense and turbulent lives you could imagine a life that included carnage war death and a lot of confusing but compelling art and that's what we're going to be looking at today here is the story of saturn panansky on the 4th of june 1960 saturn pononski was born ivika kuljak in a small village near the city of venkoshi in eastern croatia which in the 1960s was a part of yugoslavia and that would be the case for most of his life according to an article by europa vox cool jack was a model student and an intelligent teenager who entered the punk scene in the 1970s it's hard to tell who his exact influences were but in 1977 the second punk wave was in full effect and the genre had spread worldwide with dozens of popular acts now playing throughout europe inspiring new fresh bands to form and breathe life into the european scene one of these bands was called pogreb x and was formed in 1978 by a man named vladimir soldo after dropping out of school and deciding not to pursue it any further koljak took the position as the front man of this band and in 1980 they performed their first set in vinkoshi and they were likely the first ever punk band to do this not only was this a groundbreaking performance but it was also a strange one and it introduced a punk world to koljak's bizarre way of performing he would break bottles over his head inflict damage on himself with a razor blade and perform stunts that were generally quite dangerous but in the same vein he would also perform some compelling songs and recite some very interesting poetry that proved he was a talented artist who had a lot to say the band ended up releasing a live album in 1981 where they showcased some of their intense performances but any progress this band could have made was ultimately stifled because of something else that happened in 1981 that was hard to believe again this is a story that's buried in rumors and myth but the story goes that while the band were once again performing in vinkoshi he got into a fight allegedly defending his brother the fight resulted in koljak stabbing a man and ultimately killing him he avoided prison time and instead spent the next few years in a psychiatric hospital i'm not sure how he avoided prison time and got such an interesting deal but it may have to do with the fact that a few years prior he obtained psychiatric help and if he was evaluated beforehand this may have helped him plead some form of insanity and if you couple that with the self-defense theory it starts to paint a clearer picture as to why he didn't get jail time but your guess is as good as mine either way cool jack was hospitalized but that did not stop him from creating he would paint make music and write poetry while undergoing treatment and he was even allowed out of the hospital at times to perform with his band this meant that he was able to hone his craft increase his artistic abilities and continue creating throughout the early 80s and by the mid-1980s he began to release his own solo music under a new stage name that he would be known as for the rest of his career when cool jack was released from hospital he began to perform under a new stage name saturn pononski this name would be adopted somewhere around 1984 and he would use this name for his solo work he began to gain a reputation for his outlandish performances his unique production style his dress sense and even things like his sexuality many people have stated that pononski was openly gay or at the very least sexually fluid and while that probably wouldn't be as relevant now it was definitely a talking point in the mid-1980s and it likely helped shape some of his art or at the very least his world view suffice to say he was an interesting character in the punk scene and he was attracting a small but loyal audience but besides all of the antics and the shenanigans he was actually an introspective and talented artist who consistently reflected on his life approached his work with nuance and for the most part thought before he spoke at least in the context of his art we can see this in the 1990 documentary that was created by serbian filmmaker milo rad milenkovic who created a 33-minute piece about pononski that focused on three occasions in particular a live show that he performed in the students cultural center in belgrade serbia an interview that he did with radio b92 only a few hours after the live show was performed and another more intimate interview that he gave in his apartment later that night this means that the bulk of the documentary was essentially shot in the space of 8 hours but surprisingly it gives us a lot of context into his insane live shows his mind state and his artistry and without this documentary and the english translation that was created by beaujon sismic we would have a lot less to analyze and would for the most part be left in the dark but luckily we do have this documentary and it's quite revealing so let's take a look at the live show the radio interview and the conversation that takes place in his apartment and try to dissect the character that is satin panacky the show began at 11 p.m at the student center in belgrade on the 29th of may 1990. saturn takes the dimly lit stage and recites a poem that he wrote before he flails on the ground a little bit he then gets up as one of the first songs begin to play but instead of performing any vocals he sticks a couple of paper clips into his arms the music then stops and pononski recites another poem that delves into some pretty heavy material [Music] after this surprisingly introspective moment pononski then smashes a beer bottle on his head and begins to drink his own blood it seems as if he enjoyed shocking his audience by hurting himself and then he would actually give them something to think about with his poetry when they probably weren't expecting it of course this is only speculation because this is the only footage we have to look at but i say this because it happens again after saturn flails around some more he recites another interesting poem stares blankly into the crowd and the show promptly ends it is a strange but compelling performance and it's one that showcases the bizarre nature of pononski's live shows after this performance he gets cleaned up in the bathroom and then leaves to go to a nearby radio station where he answered some very interesting questions the radio interview began at 1am on the same night and it lasted for around 2 hours saturn took a number of different questions and talked about god his mental state the character he plays and a myriad of other interesting topics [Music] it was an interesting part of the documentary but a lot of the callers were quite dismissive and it made some of the conversation a little bit dull luckily for us we are given a very interesting conversation right after when saturn speaks with the director later that night in his apartment this conversation may have taken place on the same night as all of this carnage and confusion but there is definitely a less stressed more relaxed energy to it and immediately we are given some more thought-provoking insight from saturn he starts off by describing cutting himself as a discharge or a release and he then talks about the concept of killing a man if it was necessary um m it's a lot more revealing than anything else in this documentary and shows us some of the demons that satin was fighting this is confirmed at the end of the documentary when the director visits satin in the psychiatric clinic that he is staying at and that concludes the documentary easily one of the most revealing things ever made about saturn pononski and it only shows us a 24-hour period of his life which goes to show how much we probably missed out on and how much more there could be to learn about this man still we should be grateful for this documentary not only because it is a revealing exploration into the mind of a mysterious man but also because less than two years after this documentary was made satin pononski died under very mysterious circumstances in january 1992 during the croatian war of independence satan panosky was found dead with a gunshot wound inflicted to his head as i mentioned previously he had undergone some psychiatric treatment in the late 1970s and many people believed that this is because he did not want to enroll in the yugoslavian army which was mandatory at the time so why was he found dead in uniform during a war well from what i can gather satin had some pretty intense nationalistic beliefs and fighting for his country's independence was definitely something he took pride in the real question is how did he actually die of course we know that he was shot but who did the shooting well i have searched and searched and i have come across many different answers some say that he took his own life others say that it was an enemy's bullet and strangely the one i came across the most was that it was a complete accident regardless i think it's a weirdly fitting end to an incredibly strange and interesting life much of his career is wrapped in mystery and it almost seems morbidly appropriate that we know so little about his death he did not leave us with many answers but he did leave us with a pretty interesting body of work that definitely has a place in the world of punk he released three solo albums throughout his career and these projects were very interesting a lot of his music had elements of funk spoken word poetry classic rock and punk and when you combined that with the body art that he would do on stage the freak performances he would often do and the eclectic style he was able to express through his work satin panonsky is probably the most diverse artist i have covered on this series and he is definitely the most underrated i wish that i could tell you more about this man in fact i actually reached out to the director of the documentary and a couple of other people who may have known saturn but this was to no avail either way i tried to create a cohesive timeline here that includes the major parts of his life and i hope that this video serves as a jumping off point for anybody else who wants to research satin pononski or his work i will tell you that there is a lot out there that i unfortunately could not translate such as the small but loyal cult following he has over on vk which is a russian social network i also found a few articles and interviews that may be interesting and i even found a 362 page thesis written about satin that features some great photos and pictures of the man himself so there is a lot out there to explore and i will be leaving all of these things linked in the description i also encourage you to check out some of his music and his art i found it all very intriguing and like i said he is a very diverse artist that i think a lot of you may enjoy but that's all for me today i don't know how to end this video love you have a good day [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Deburke321

Views: 680,639

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Id: BYdq_w6LA-Y

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ChanoArdent75]

He was way smarter than GG Allin and the similarities between them were limited to self harm.

[u/leftoverzack83]

I definitely see the similarities, but agreed . He seemed way more intelligent than GG. Also really enjoyed this video . I had never heard of him and will be diving pretty deep into learning more about him. Thanks man