Niko Kotherja, director of the Armed Forces Museum and a historian-collector, restored a rare disc that preserves the voice of Father Gjergj Fishta.
The disc is one of the few authentic copies that survived. At first, it was broken into three pieces and could not be played.

Then, Kotherja began a long restoration process. He carefully aligned the three fragments to make the disc readable again. As a result, Fishta’s voice became audible once more.

The restoration took place in Korça. Kotherja used effective methods to glue the pieces and to prepare the surface for gramophone playback. However, the disc still needs a final intervention to reduce noise before digitization.

“This is one of the only authentic copies with Fishta’s original voice,” Kotherja said. He noted that only a limited number of copies existed.

Afterwards, by calibrating the gramophone precisely at 78 rotations per minute, he managed to hear Fishta clearly. The recording includes two songs from “Lahuta e Malcis.”

The disc was recorded in Shkodër and likely dates to 1937 or 1938. It is the only known audio recording of Fishta. Meanwhile, it forms part of Kotherja’s large collection of pre–World War II sound documents, including folk music, patriotic songs, and recordings of figures like Aleksandër Moisiu.

The collection also contains all recordings of the “Hymn to the Flag” from 1918 to 1952, produced in Italy, the United States, France, Turkey, and other countries.

Kotherja plans to present the restored recording publicly, possibly on an anniversary linked to Fishta or to events such as the Congress of Manastir.

/a.c/