Elipse (; trans. The Ellipses) were a Yugoslav rock band formed in Belgrade in 1962. The band were one of the pioneers of the Yugoslav rock scene.
Elipse initially performed beat music and rhythm and blues. With the arrival of vocalist Edi Dekeng, the band added a brass section and moved towards soul music. During the six years of the band's activity, they were one of the most popular bands in Yugoslavia. Their releases and live performances were praised by the press, and the Yugoslav media compared their rivalry with the band Siluete to the one between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. After the group disbanded in 1968, bass guitarist Bojan Hreljac and drummer Vladimir Furduj would join Korni Grupa, and keyboardist Zoran Simjanović would go on to become one of the most notable composers of film music in the Balkans.
History
The beat and rhythm and blues years (1962-1967) The band was formed in 1962 by Momčilo "Moma" Radovanović (guitar), Radomir Dmitrović "Đura" (guitar) and Minja Tasić (vocals), having their first rehearsals at the Society for Culture and Arts Gradimir Mihajlović. The name Elipse was suggested by Dmitrović, after he took a mathematics exam and had a hard time solving a problem concerning an ellipse. The band had their first notable live appearance at the Belgrade club Euridika on June 21, 1963. On Autumn of the same year, the drummer Vladimir "Furda" Furduj joined the band, bringing along keyboardist Zoran Simjanović, formerly of the band Siluete. At the time, the lineup featured, beside Radovanović, Dmitrović, Furduj and Simjanović, Božidar Knežević (vocals), Kosta Ignjatović "Gule" (saxophone), and Bojan Hreljac (bass guitar). However, this lineup did not last long. Knežević was replaced by Slobodan "Skaka" Skakić, at the time a high school student, Dmitrović was replaced by Simeun "Simica" Vuković, and Ignjatović left the band, Elipse continuing without a saxophonist. On the departure of Skakić, the band decided to turn to polyphonic vocals with all the members doing vocals beside their instrumental duties. For a while, director Aleksandar Mandić performed live with the band, singing backing vocals and playing tambourine.
During their initial years, Elipse performed mostly covers of the songs by the Shadows, and later moved towards rhythm and blues. They initially performed in the garden of the Society for Culture and Arts Gradimir Mihajlović, and soon started to perform as a backing band for the at-the-time popular singers Ivanka Pavlović, Đorđe Marjanović, Dragan Stojnić and Miki Jevremović. The band also performed as a studio band for the singer Miodrag Marković, on the recording of the extended play featuring the songs "Predaću tugu zvezdama" ("I Will Hand My Grief to the Stars"), "Ne reci sad" ("Do Not Say Now"), "Ne, nemoj nikad plakati" ("No, Don't You Ever Cry"), and "Zaboravi me" ("Forget Me"), released by PGP-RTB in 1965.
In 1964, Elipse took part in the Vatromet ritma concert series and a large open-air concert in Zagreb's Šalata. In the summer of 1965, they were hired to perform on dances held at the Belgrade Faculty of Technology. They gained the attention of Radio Belgrade editors and got an opportunity to record several songs for Radio Belgrade. The band had become increasingly popular, with the media propagating a rivalry with Siluete. Despite their growing popularity, their record label PGP-RTB did not find it as a token for good record sales, resulting in a split EP release with the popular rock and roll singer Perica Stojančić. The EP featured Elipse and the vocal group Korali as Stojančić's backing bands, and on the B-side, Elipse recorded the instrumental tracks "Signal Evrovizije" ("Eurovision Signal") and "Plaža" ("The Beach").