English Album with Songs from Toshe Proeski

October 16 2007. Exactly seven years after the death of one of our musical greats, the young boy that erased the borders in the Balkans with his voice and songs.

Even after seven years it seems as if it was yesterday. Macedonia lost such music star as we might never see ever again. Exactly one day before the anniversary of his death, Telegraf.mk’s team visited Krusevo, the town where Tose Proeski was coming from.

The people in Krusevo tell us that this city will never be what it was until the mournful day when Tose died in a horrible car accident in Nova Gradiska, in Croatia.  We arrived in the city, just passing through it, and we headed to the monastery of the Holy Transfiguration, where Tose once said: Here I find my peace and I know that after everything I will end up here.

Inside the monastery we are welcomed by his uncle Anastas, the brother of Tose’s father, or Chuli, as he is known in Krusevo .

“Welcome, how are you,” asks Chuli.

We enter the monastery immediately. The entrance has a carved wooden gate, and two other handmade and with saints painted on them.

“There are still many things that need to be completed for the monastery to be ready for dedication. We recently finished the floor which is all paved with granite donated by a girl from Ohrid. She comes here often and once she asked me if that could be her donation only, so I said ‘why not’,” Anastas tells us.

No need to post questions for uncle Anastas to start telling about the people that come to visit the monastery of Tose.

“Some time ago two black girls from America came. They both learned about Tose on Internet. One of them barely mustered the courage to go inside, she could not stop crying,” says Tose’s uncle.

The archives keep church song Tose recorded

Tose’s brother in law Slave is the man that many people vilified for reportedly earning at the expense of Tose’s work and image. But if it was not for this man, many things would’ve still tap into place and a lot of people would’ve profited from the death of Tose.  What we what to find out first is whether we will have the opportunity to see and listen to something new from Tose Proeski.

“We are already planning and began preparations to publish an album with Tose’s songs in English on the 10th anniversary of his death. Those are songs that Tose recorded in London. You will be surprised of what you’ll hear in few years. I’d say it is the best of Tose,” Slave says.

In the family archives keep a church song Tose recorded several years ago.

“It's called "The Vests of Christ." It is perhaps the only church song that is joyful. Tose heard it in some occasion and immediately wanted to sing it. He found the lyrics and soon after he went to the studio and recorded it. We plan to air the song for the first time on the day when the monastery is dedicated,” Slave says.  

Among the plans is the street in his home town, which bears his name, to be inscribed with the notes of "Tajno moja”. The Proeski family and the foundation received several offers to film a documentary about Tose and such a project will probably be realized in the near future.