The composition Cracks of Time for two performers was inspired by the sound of the tidldibab, a replica of the Neanderthal flute from Divje babe—an exceptional archaeological find of global significance. In the fractures of modernity, reminiscences of ancient times emerge as an unconventionally shaped sonic space, brought to life through a broad interpretative approach on various instruments. Cracks of Time has been performed multiple times by Žiga Stanič on the prepared piano—which offers great acoustic diversity—and Boštjan Gombač as a multi-instrumentalist, including at the international Musice del Mondo festival in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown in Maribor’s Union Hall, and at the official ceremony marking the 200th anniversary of the National Museum of Slovenia in 2021. Cracks of Time is a polystylistic project by Žiga Stanič, placing the concept of prehistoric music alongside contemporary music, or music that still resides in our collective memory. A vibrant interplay of performative virtuosity, contemplation, aesthetic diversity, multi-instrumental variety, and unconventional acoustic combinations, the work is conceived with the idea of the infinite possibilities of musical expression—forever forgotten and buried under layers of millennia.
Just as a single word can be extracted from the context of a broader literary work, a musical idea can be drawn from a moment in time, from a crack in time. Whether as an actual musical phrase or merely as an aesthetic possibility enabled by the performance on a specific instrument, it becomes a doorway to expression. The use of a wide range of instruments and tonal diversity underlines the idea of an endless array of aesthetic possibilities, unified within a single concept: between the archaic on one side and the avant-garde on the other, a circle is completed. Stanič initially explored the sound of the tidldibab in collaboration with Ljuben Dimkaroski, a key advocate in Slovenia of the thesis that even the Paleolithic era was ripe for the development of aesthetic creation and musical perception—that it was not only modern humans who were capable of this, but Neanderthals as well. Dimkaroski dedicated the final part of his life to crafting replicas of the flute from Divje babe and performing a variety of music on them.
Stanič systematically documented Dimkaroski’s knowledge and, after his death, passed it on—along with one of the best-crafted replicas—to Boštjan Gombač, who now actively continues Ljuben’s work. Since 2017, Gombač has deepened his understanding of the tidldibab in collaboration with the National Museum of Slovenia, presenting the instrument as a part of the scholarly musical verification of the Divje babe flute.