Festival Lineup

Tisa & Mojca (Slo)

Tisa Neža Herlec – voice, objects
Mojca Zupančič – keys, voice

Harmonic passages of the piano keys and dreamy synthesizer textures dance with a voice that leads the listeners through the depths of imaginary worlds. the interplay of Tisa Neža and Mojca evokes a variety of potential and magic. their compositions are windows into world stories, draughty with improvised segments. Mojca Zupančič (keys, voice) and Tisa Neža Herlec (voice, objects) are seasoned artists, active at home and abroad, most commonly as a duet that sporadically expands into larger ensembles. 

Genre-wise they float above electronic ambient music, modern improvisation, cabaret, and inspired intuitive poetry. They perform with great enthusiasm, liveliness, and honest realism with which they address the human side we all have in common.

tisa.world/mojca-zupancic
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Aleš Valentinčič – Brdonč / Gal Furlan duet Orange Blue Noise (Slo)

Aleš Valentinčič (Brdonč): electric guitar, e-bow, microphone, Boss me25, kaoss pad, mixer
Gal Furlan: Drums

After long years of knowing each other and working together on various projects as well as being good friends Aleš and Gal present a fresh album Orange Blue Noise. It is a mixture of noise and free improvisation. The idea came from Aleš who invited drummer Gal to be a part of the project and help complete it. They already worked together at The Zlatko Kaučič Kombo (Kombo A), in the Mojo Hišni Band, and in a trio together with Cene Resnik as well as on numerous other occasions. They share a number of releases, but the Orange Blue Noise album is the first as a duet and by the looks of it, it won’t be the last. 

Aleš Valentinčič – Brdonč, a member of Link Der Wasser and various other impro-jazz lune-ups. He contributed to many jazz workshops and was one of the first members of the Zlatko Kaučič’s first Kombo line-up from 2000 to 2004 as well as the co-author at Harlem Underground. 
Gal Furlan (1990) expressed an interest in playing drums already as a child. So logically, musical education soon followed and he got it at the Zlatko Kaučič school. Furlan has been self-employed in culture as a musician since 2015. He mostly works in the field of jazz and modern improvisational music. He contributed to numerous projects in Slovenia and abroad, performs with various established musicians, and performed a number of solo projects. He has released more than 30 albums, as a solo musician or with other musicians. He is also the author of two books in which he published his poetry and short prosaic writings. In Lokavec near Ajdovščina, where he lives, he helped establish the Štala Klub where, together with his family in the scope of the Kussa society, organizes concerts, exhibitions, lectures, and other cultural events. In recent years he has also become quite involved in painting.

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Nickel Kosmo (Ita)

Flavio Zanuttini, trumpet, gong resonances, analog synths

The basis of this solo project is the idea of resonating a gong solely with the sound of the trumpet. This atypical timbral core was then complemented and enhanced by an analog electronic set-up consisting of effects and synthesizers.

The resulting sound is inspired by science fiction comic books: in fact, Nickel Kosmo is the protagonist of an incredible comic book science fiction story, a story set in uncharted space, a story that defies the laws of physics, that goes beyond the event horizon, that mocks space-time. In fact, it has not yet been written

Flavio Zanuttini is a trumpeter, improviser, and experimenter. Tireless research is what characterizes him in whatever musical sphere he gets involved in. Under his own name, he has released two solo records, La Notte (Creative Sources Recordings/Umland Records 2018) and Ginkgo (Pork Bristle 2022), and one record with his trio Opacipapa, Born Baby Born (Clean Feed 2018) in addition to dozens of other works as co-leader or sideman.

Over the years he has had the pleasure of playing all over Europe, South America, the USA, and Australia collaborating with artists of all genres.

flaviozanuttini.com
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Private: MIA ZABELKA (Aut)

“Mia Zabelka shows that ambiance, electronics, and improvisation can imposingly co-exist. That is if the music is composed and performed with decisive goals in mind.”                                                                                                                       Ken Waxman/May 2023

Austrian violinist-vocalist Mia Zabelka is considered to be a leading figure in the international scene of electroacoustic music, known for her innovative and boundary-pushing approach to music, incorporating elements of noise, drone, and improvisation into her compositions. Using a unique musical language that she describes as ‘automatic playing’. Zabelka allows the sounds to be generated by her own body and gestures in combination with acoustic and electric violin, her own voice, electronic devices, and all kinds of strange sound objects. Using this set up she is given the opportunity to expand the sound range so extensively that the violin itself becomes an interface and/or an electronic sound generator. She has released multiple albums and has performed at various festivals and venues around the world. She has also worked with a variety of artists and collaborators, including John Zorn and the experimental music group Zeitkratzer. In 2021, Mia Zabelka has been awarded the Austrian Art Prize in the category „Music” by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service, and Sport.

miazabelka.com

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Stem (Mkd)

Aleksandar Temkov (MK)
DJ Stem is ‘The Bunker Jockey’ who plays hardline beat dance tracks filed under folders disco-punk, funky-punk, classic-punk, whatever-punk.
His motto is: ‘Beats crushes all concrete walls into pieces beats melt down all cemented souls.’

XMobil: The Sound of a Falling Tree in a Silent Forest

Performed by: Simon Weckert and Vasyl Kuzmich

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? It certainly
does make a sound, because it produces vibrations in the air. The anthropic principle
said, “If there are no ears to hear, there will be no sound.” The observer (of how a tree
falls) can, by their very existence, influence the observed reality. Therefore, it is very
important to observe the world and ourselves; already, with our “pure” observation, we
change the world and fill it with sound and color.
Xmobil’s performance and presentation span from downright ambient music to edgy
sound art, applying machine-learning-generated visuals mapped to sound frequencies.
Xmobil aims to create an engaging and interactive environment, where the audience is
invited to become part of the Mobile Planetarium. The performance is mostly created in
real-time and/or improvised with hardware synthesizers, sequencers, and software. It
also involves interaction with the audience through GPS detection of phones (phones are
optional), GSM/3G/4G frequencies, wifi scanning, and spoofing. In addition, recorded or
live sounds from self-powered microphones in various natural locations broadcast the
sounds of what is “happening.” Remaining autonomous, yet on the move, with xMobil

CONTACTS:
sw@simonweckert.com
rocksuicider@gmail.com

TiTiTi &Marina Džukljev (Slo/Srb)

In cooperation with Zavod SPLOH cycle of DECENTRALIZATION.

Jure Boršič − alto sax, clarinet
Jošt Drašler – double bass
Vid Drašler − drums
Guest: Marina Džukljev – piano

An endless improvised jazz braid; Boršič and two Drašlers, saxophone, bass, and drums, the well-known faces of the Slovenian improvised and free jazz scene have merged into a triangular derivative of a bigger band Oholo! The jazz braid, fueled from the moment, steadily meanders between tradition and freedom, wanders deep, floats lightly, and sounds benevolent. In 2022, they finally released their first album Štafelaj (Easel) heavily influenced by the great Slovenian painter Jože Tisnikar. It featured poet Tomislav Vrečar and Serbian pianist Marina Džukljev.

In addition to musicology, Jošt Drašler also studied double bass at the Regional Conservatory in Klagenfurt with Prof. Uli Langthaler. Recently, he has been intensively involved in the fields of contemporary music practices with an emphasis on free improvisation, an interest in risk potentials, and their natural development, which generates unpredictable sound textures. He regularly attends and organizes workshops on free improvised music (Brda Contemporary Music Festival, Raziskava – Refleksija, Monday’s Rojišča, Mariboring, 4 States Sessions, Improcon, etc.). He plays with a wide variety of musicians from a wide variety of genres and supra-genre milieus. His broad understanding of music transcends a variety of genre frameworks from free jazz, and freely improvised music, to avant-rock and flamenco.

Vid Drašler is from Bistrica ob Sotli, where he played in the jazz-rock band Zmajev rep and in an alternative rock band Malik. His next peaks were jazz-oriented Balžalorsky – Drašler trio and the free jazz trio Drašler – Karlovčec – Drašler, in which louder improvisation does not mean less clarity. He also participated in several theater projects and with Zlatko Kaučič’s Combo, with which he studied for four years. He is also active as a music pedagogue and co-designer of music events in Vrhnika and the engine of an improvisation workshop there.
He has also collaborated with musicians such as Zlatko Kaučič, Vitja Balžalorsky, Jošt Drašler, Marko Karlovčec, Andrej Boštjančič, Andrej Fon, Tomaž Grom, Cene Resnik, Kaja Draksler, Mario Rechtern, Linda Sharrock, Petr Zelenka, Samo Kutin, Tao G Vrhovec Sambolec …

Jure Boršič is a saxophonist of the youngest generation, working between Ljubljana and the Vrtojba Creative Zone. He blows, bites, squeaks, and squeals in the bands Koromač, Oholo !, TiTiTi, Kombo B, Bootleg Unit, Shoe & Shoelace, Niemoy, Orchestra Brez Meja / Senza Confini, and on ad hoc improvised occasions. A never-to-be jazz saxophone student has recently been devoting himself to preparations on his instrument, and he is also a part of the organizing teams of the Fri-Fru-Fra concert cycle and the Improbiro festival.

Marina Džukljev is a pianist from Novi Sad (Serbia). She is an active performer in the field of classical, contemporary music, improvisation, and applied music. Her engagement with improvised music began in free improvisation in collaborations with musicians such as: Diatribes, Urs Leimgruber, Tomaž Grom, Joel Grip, Albert Markos, Szilard Mezei, Yedo Gibson, Vasco Trilla, John Dikeman, Vid Drašler, Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson, Andrej Fon, Isabelle Duthoit, Reka Kutas, Peter Ajtai, Jaka Berger, Robert Roža, Marko Karlovčec, Igor Čubrilović, Manja Ristić, Herman Muntzing, and many others.

Her performances were recorded and broadcast by such public radio and television networks as: RTS Digital, Radio Belgrade 3, and Radio Novi Sad. She also has a long-standing collaboration with the Ujvideki Szinhaz Theatre in Novi Sad. She has performed in festivals all across Europe: the Novi Sad Jazz Festival, the International Festival of Actual Music Interzone, Swiss Music Days in Serbia, FonoBudaiZenehaz (Budapest), the Festival of non-aligned Comics Novo Doba [Eng. New Era], Confine Aperto, 4 State Session, and ImproCon. She is a regular performer in Improvised Music Concerts ImprovE (Belgrade) and Improstor (Novi Sad). She is a member of the quartet, septet, tenet, and the large ensemble of the composer and violist Szilard Mezei, with whom she has recorded and published music over the many years of collaboration. She is an active member of duos Jaka Berger/Marina Džukljev and ManjaRistić/Marina Džukljev, and trios Džukljev/Berger/Poderžaj and Mezei/Trilla/Džukljev.

bandcamp
sploh.si
radioštudent

Samo Kutin & Pascal Battus – Living Bridges (Slo/Fra)

Samo Kutin: hurdy-gurdies, objects, acoustic resonators 
Pascal Battus: rotating surface, objects, cymbals 

Samo Kutin is an active multi-instrumentalist, known for his use of unconventional and self-made musical instruments and sound-making objects. One of the traditional instruments in his repertoire is also the Hungarian medieval string instrument hurdy-gurdy, which he can be often seen playing at the events of experimental and improvised music. In the field of free improvisation, he is intensively devoted to finding, discovering, and manipulating the various potentialities of the hurdy-gurdy. The extreme acoustic dimensions, from gentle noise to noisy drones, from soft blows to unbearable whimpers, he reaches through the preparation and amplification of the musical instrument, using both contact microphones and acoustic resonators.

He performs as a soloist and in a variety of improvised combinations (among others, a duo with Jean-Luc Guionnet, Lee Paterson, Martin Küchen, etc.) and ethnic ensembles at international festivals and various stages. He also creates music for fairy tales, animations, theater, puppet, and dance performances and runs workshops for children.

Sound artist, improviser, and composer, Pascal Battus have developed a practice that is more concerned with sonic gestures, listening, and the situation which determines them rather than with any particular instrument. Among other sound sources, he uses guitar pick-ups and rotating surfaces.  He has played throughout Europe and in the USA, Canada, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia… both solo and more frequently with other musicians. He often works with dancers and with performers from the plastic arts (video, lighting, sculpture…) and was co-inventor of Sonic Massages (les Massages Sonores).

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Dal:um (Kor)

Ha Su Yean (Gayageum), 
Hwang Hye Young (Geomungo)

Dal:um is a duo band established in 2018 by Ha Su-yean (gayageum) and Hwang Hye-yeong (geomungo). The name is Dal:um signifies the way people keep trying their best at something that they have successfully started, reflecting the musicians’ strong will. Despite their apparent similarity, the gayageum and geomungo are surprisingly different from each other in structure, playing techniques and tone color. Dal:um will show how innovative interpretations create a harmony of strong energy and beautiful voices of the two instruments. 

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Karmakoma (Slo)

The band formed in 2011 and pretty soon found themselves on Slovenian stages, first in the scope of the RŠ marathon. At the beginning of 2014, Karmakoma released their first album ‘ Imagination in mechanical metamorphoses’, a 10-song album that reflects their own vision of a mixture of electronic and rock music. They perform a lot on home stages, but also at festivals abroad, in Belgium, England, and the Balkans. Their EP ‘Remiss’ is to be released soon. Karmakoma performs often but also changes its line-up a lot. They also performed at showcase festivals like Waves Vienna, Ment Ljubljana, and Tallinn Music Week in Estonia. After a short hiatus, they released the ‘Mother Lode’ single in 2022 and are returning to the stages in a new line-up. Karmakoma consists of founding members Enej Mavsar and Jošt Drašler (Oholo, Tititi), Marek Fakuč (Etceteral, Eating Sports), and Janžej Marinč (Onubo)

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Harry Theteacher (Ger/Slo)

Moteris (Ltv)

Lithuanian queer and house music DJ. Woman is always at the center of Her music. Each set is a collision between queer and feminist anthems, synthesizers, female Arab whispers, and guitars.

Check out her sound: soundcloud

LELEE (Slo)

Damjan Manevski (guitar, vocal)
Jelena Rusjan (bass, vocal)
Leon Stoilković (drums)
Blaž Gracar (synth)

The local curious indie rock/post-punk line-up Lelee represents the embodiment of multicultural collaboration among musicians from the Balkans from Vardar to Triglav as it is composed of Jelena Rusjan (Borghesia, TRUS!) from Belgrade on bass and vocals, Macedonian Damjan Manevski (Rush to Relax, Molokai) on vocals and guitar as well as Slovenians Blaž Gracar (Blaž), the synth magician and drummer Leon Stoilković. As a part of the 2020 Radio Študent Club Marathon line-up, the group was quickly getting noticed on the alternative scene with an exciting indie guitar tone and the intertwining of male and female vocals singing in Serbian and Macedonian.

Their first album, ‘Čuka boije pumpa’ (Moonlee Records, Ill in the Head Records, 2021) is characterized by powerful male and female vocal harmonies in the vein of Yo La Tengo which stay in the listener’s head for a long time. The trio draws heavily from the pioneer unpolished sound of indie rock dinosaurs like Dinosaur Jr. and The Pixies, modern indie punk ambassadors like Sweeping Promises and Uranium Club, easygoing jangle pop from both sides of the United States and the Yugoslavian new wave in the sense of regional authenticity. Despite the generational differences, all members of the group share a love for the sounds of indie history which they like to mix into more modern variants, with which they address the contemporary listener. 

Lelee is a master of melodic indie compositions with a sense of pop accessibility, they effortlessly produce memorable refrains and happy, sometimes nostalgic, and more powerful melodies suitable for long motorway escapades and summer journeys. Damjan joyously strums on his guitar, Jelena serves the listener bass lines that make your toes itch and Jan makes sure that everything works as a perfect sonic background for late afternoon alter grooving in a summer garden. We could say that Lelee plays a type of imaginary Adriatic indie rock, which is emotive, sincere, and direct, but mostly suitable for middle-of-the-road radio frequencies and a wider audience. 

Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / Deezer

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SVOJAT (Slo)

Andrej Fon: guitar, saxophone, lead vocal, lyrics
Ivo Poderžaj: bass, voice
Vid Drašler: drums 

Svojat is a Ljubljana-based power trio high roping above or cascading down no-wave, avant-garde blues, Saharan punk, Beefhearty luddism, and free improvisation.  

A key ingredient is Fon’s Buñuelesque poetry rendered in such an expressive manner that not speaking Slovene does not hinder the listener’s aesthetic pleasure. Poderžaj’s electric bass combines the functions of both rhythm and solo instruments thus shifting and expanding harmonic vectors of the guitar and reeds. Drawing from his jazz and free improv background, Drašler’s drumming is mathematically intriguing while sonically poetic. 

In 2020, their eponymous debut CD was voted the best Slovene album of the year by Radio Študent – a progressive independent radio station from Ljubljana.

www.terapija.net
bandcamp.com
youtube

Fawda (Ita)

RedA Zine: Lyrics, Lead Vocals, Guembri.
Fabrizio Puglisi: Piano, Fender Rhodes, Synth Arp Odyssey, Vocals.
Danilo Mineo: Percussions,  Pad percussion, Efx, Vocals.
Brothermartino: Drum machine, Synth, Vocals, Flute, Sax.

Fawda band started in Bologna from the idea of Fabrizio Puglisi, Danilo Mineo, Reda Zine, and Brothermartino. The sound of Fawda is a mix between electronic music, contemporary jazz, and Gnawa Moroccan music, based on the deep and warm bass sound of the Guembrì, a 3 strings traditional instrument, bearer of a musical culture based on trance, healing, Sufism, and ancient possession cults.

The new Fawda vinyl album is the result of deep on-field research during several African trips which evolved the artistic direction into new sounds, imaginaries, tones, and topical issues also thanks to the collaboration with Moroccan musicians from the Essaouira Gnawa confraternity with master Soudani, Egyptian master Hassan Bargamoon and Ethiopian (Fendika Cultural Center, Italian Institute Addis Abeba).

After the first LP release « Road to Essaouira » (Original Cultures, 2014), and then being selected among the winners of the « Bologna Unesco City Of Music 2020 » competition notice, Fawda, teaming up with the Scuola Popolare di Musica Ivan Illich of Bologna, are now presenting their new 7” vinyl titled « Abou Maye » along with the video clip with features hand drawings by illustrator Squaz. The EP contains two tracks (Abou Maye and Semien Hotel) realized in co-production with the label « Brutture Moderne«.

redazine.com
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ALPACAS COLLECTIVE (Bel)

Hans Van Scharen – Alt & Bariton sax
Frederik Kühn, Percussion – Shakers 
Sander Vos, Percussion – Xylophone
Jeroen Ollevier – Keys 
Joel van Roode – Sitar
Stan Hennes, Drums – Percussion
Alexander Dingens – Alt & Tenor sax
Marc Jans, Trombone – bariton sax
Robby Swingers – Guitar
Steven Vandervoort – Bass

Alpacas Collective brings a mixture of raw funk, steamy afrobeat, and mysterious ethio-jazz.

The group has built a solid reputation as the irresistible live band Alpacas. With its nine musicians on drums, percussion, bass, guitar, organ, and horns, the band fills the stage with tight grooves and with collective enthusiasm. During the covid 19 pandemic, the group retreated underground in a quest to soul-saving creativity, to come out as Alpacas Collective with a first release.

On ‘Seven Wisdoms of Plutonia’, released on October 22, Alpacas Collective combines influences from Lagos to Addis Ababa, from New Orleans to Augusta, Georgia, and from New Delhi to sci-fi worlds far beyond our solar system. The album bundled influences from ethio-jazz, afrobeat, kraut, and lndian sounds that are tied together on the backbeats of funk.

In the studio, Alpacas Collective collaborates with several artists each contributing their specific assets to the songs and live performances.

Alpacas Collective already shared the stage with acts such as Budos Band, Mulatu Astatke, Lefties Soul Connection, Cody Chesnutt, Quantic Soul Orchestra, and The Poets of Rhythm.

“Killer psychedelicjam blending afro sitar funk and ethio jazz sounds! Tip!” – Music Mania Records

“While “Seven Wisdoms of Plutonia” continues a recent trend of bringing African flavors to jazz-funk groove, the enthusiasm in the performances makes this an exceptional and enjoyable example of that approach.” – UK Vibe

“Alpacas Collective sounds really impressive a group of musicians who made their mark somewhere in a shadow world that mere morta/s like us don’t know about.” – Da Music

“I think you are able to catch that afro/ethiojazz sound but not only play it but give something yours to this music.” -A fan

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BURNT FRIEDMAN (Ger)

Burnt Friedman is one of Germany’s most long-established and highly-rated electronic musicians with a career spanning almost 40 years.  He was born in Coburg, Germany in 1965 and has lived in Portugal since 2020.

After initially being a student of art in Kassel, Germany, Burnt started to focus on music exclusively from the late 1980s onwards. He went on to attend the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne as a postgraduate student and began to publish his musical works along with his studio productions in 1979. He also began performing live around the same time, both of which soon attracted the attention of the Cologne electronic music scene. From there he progressed to various notable music collaborations throughout the 1990s on projects with the likes of Jaki Liebezeit, Hayden Chisholm, Root70,  Atom™ (as Flanger), Tim Motzer, Steve Jansen, and David Sylvian (as Nine Horses).

In 2000 Friedman launched his own record label, Nonplace, with 56 releases to date. Working under the solo artist name of BURNT FRIEDMAN, he sought to address the prejudices people had then about the authenticity of programmed music.

His studio and on-stage partnership with Jaki Liebezeit, the former drummer of CAN, dated 17 years. On the strength of their craft and universal musical vocabulary, they have consciously distanced themselves from the formulas of Western European and Anglo-American music.

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Crystal Therapy (Ita)

Lucia Gasti – violin & synth
Daniele Cortese – turntable, drum machines 

Lux (violin and synthesizers) joins forces with Psonic (turntable, drum machines) to form the experimental electronic duo CRYSTAL THERAPY. Together they blend ambient soundscapes with percussive techno rituals, channeling the transformative powers of healing crystals.
This formation will be their premiere performance.

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HYBRIDA (Ita)

The Circolo Arci Hybrida cultural society based in the Italian town of Tarcento near Udine has been organizing and promoting events and concerts for 20 years, mostly alternative, improvisational and contemporary avant-garde music.

Since 2007, they have been organizing various light performances through various media: projectors and slides, computers, video projectors, DIY gadgets and also techniques used in the 60’s. Their performances were hosted at many festivals: such as Udin & Jazz (“The Old New Thing”, 2008), Il Suono di Pan (“Gods”, 2010), project “In The Box” realized as “Eventopalazzo” in Gorizia with the DobiaLab association in 2011.

In these light-video performances, they try to find the perfect interaction with space where the event is hosted. We could therefore label their production as improvisational or expanded cinema. With their rich and wide collection of visual tools the Hybrida group strives to catch the public’s manifold sensory experiences and stimulate them to produce active seeing which can enable someone to achieve “clear and bright dreams”. In any case, the natural beauties of Sotočje will present a true challenge to the Hybrida team to create for us the unthinkable bursts of our experience by uniting the world of music and video-light effects.

WEB: HYBRIDA SPACE

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/hybridaspace/

Haiku Garden (Slo)

Anže Knez – drums
Matevž Bitenc – bass 
Klemen Tehovnik –  guitar, synths, vocal, samples
Luka Flegar – guitars, vocals, sitar

Haiku Garden is a shoegaze/neopsychedelic band from Ljubljana that plays loud and noisy guitar music with pop influences.

They started appearing on stages in 2015 when they were chosen to be a part of the RŠ marathon project, through which they got to know the stages of Slovenian clubs. 

In 2016 they released the ‘Waver EP’ through KAPA Records and attacked stages at home and abroad. They played through Austria, The Czech Republic, Serbia, Poland, etc., and also appeared at festivals in Moscow and Liverpool. In 2017 they were warming up the stage at Kino Šiška for bigger names like SUUNS and The Jesus & Mary Chain. The track ‘Rosetta’ from the before-mentioned EP was chosen as the ‘song of the day’  on the KEXP radio from Seattle. 

In 2018 they released their first LP through KAPA Records entitled ‘Where if not Now’. It got many great reviews in Slovenia and abroad and was named album of the year by Slovenian magazine Mladina and got second place at the Croatian Muzika.hr portal in the category of best albums from the ex-yu region. They promoted the album at live shows in Slovenia and abroad, which also included a short tour of Spain at the end of 2018 and the Balkans (Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia) in February 2019. They also appeared at the legendary ‘Izštekani’ (unplugged) program on radio Val 202 and the performance was also released in digital format.

In 2022 they released the highly anticipated second album through KAPA Records ‘Loose Contacts/Tense Present’ on which they combine influences from shoegaze, postpunk, krautrock, and noise with even more confidence. The album is the result of years of searching, reinvention, and the final discovery, it is an album of opposites, reflecting the duality of today’s world. The album was well-received by the public and the media.

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Zahra Mani & Jaka Berger: Reflections of empty spaces (UK/Pk, Slo,Ita)

Zahra Mani – bass guitar, field recordings (UK/PK)
Jaka Berger – drums, objects, modular synthesizer (SI)
Gavino Canu – Visuals (IT)

Mani and Berger explore the acoustic imaginings of abandoned spaces. Raw drums, acoustic objects, the bass guitar, and everyday sound are transformed through modular synthesis and live effects into a sonic world that shapes the performance space in a process of de- and reconstructed acoustic exchange heightened by the abstract industrial visuals of Sardinian film artist Gavino Canu. 

Zahra Mani & Jaka Berger combine a number of instruments and sounds along with immersive visuals in a dynamic musical and intermedial dialogue. Berger’s unique and sensitive percussion is enhanced by modular synthesizers and effects that he triggers through oscillations while playing. Zahra Mani’s field recordings combine every day and found sounds that she dissects and reconstructs in her studio, transforming them into an instrument enriched by her electric bass guitar with effects that she designs for each performance. Together, the duo creates a complex and dynamic interactive moment, drawing the audience into their imagined world.

Zahra Mani is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who creates pulsing, shifting soundscapes derived from her burgeoning archive of instrumental and found sound that she has been recording and developing for years. 

Her work focuses on spaces between. Crossing boundaries, and challenging aesthetic and cultural preconceptions in an ongoing flux of sound, word, and motion, Zahra Mani creates shifting, pulsing, explosive, whispering, murmuring, screaming, cajoling, and caressing sonic worlds. She harvests sounds from the field and transforms fragments of natural and mechanical audio material into dynamic acoustic monuments where voices, instruments, machines, sea, wind, and landscapes sound instrumental and her electric bass guitar is transformed into raindrops, engines, and throbbing monsoon winds.

Jaka Berger is one of the most active, creative, and versatile drummers, composers, and improvisers on the Slovenian music scene in the last fifteen years. In 2006 he released his debut album with Samo Šalamon and Achille Succi for the Italian label Splasch Records. Since 2014 till today he is regularly publishing music for prepared drums that he is constructing by himself. His albums are regularly reviewed by international media on improvisation and electroacoustic music. He is part of the experimental sound installation project Partija/The game with visual artist Matej Stupica, a member of bands Ludovik Material and Darla Smoking. Performed in independent theater shows Gremo Vsi!, Novo mesto Readymade and Nein. Toured with EBM legends Borghesia. In 2015 he released an album of graphic compositions Treatise by Cornelius Cardew. In 2016 he performed his most complex piece Audible life stream tentet for ten musicians. In 2017 finished a Japan tour and released a second album with an international VOB trio. Currently, he is performing free jazz with Mezei Šalamon Berger trio, Fresh Dust trio (FMR records UK), Bootleg Unit (FMR records UK), released electro-acoustic album dedicated to composer Morton Feldman with pianist Dejan Berden and integrating modular synth into his prepared drumset. Since 2020 Jaka is returning to Cornelius Cardew Treatise composition, he released an album called Breakfast with Cardew that received very good reviews in international media. In 2021 he released a book of poetry remixes and sound translations called Poetrix, which includes poems of the best Slovenian independent writers.

In recent years he was a mentor in drumming and musical improvisation workshops and is regularly teaching drums as private lessons. He is constantly upgrading his knowledge and experience in drums, music, composing, and improvisation with many different musicians and improvisers from all around the globe and is developing the concept of workshops as a wide collective creative space based on improvisation and communication. With his ideas and approach, he incorporates music into our everyday lives and through it teaches and encourages relationships based on listening, responding, coexisting, and cooperating.

gavinocanu
zahramani
jakaberger

21. VEK (Mkd)

Vasko Atanasoski-vocal
Deni Krstev-guitar, programming, back vocals
Rade Jordanovski-bass

21 vek from Skopje, Macedonia features three well-known figures from Skopje’s underground scene: Vasko Atanasoski(vocals), Rade Jordanovski(bass), and Deni Krstev(guitar, back vocals) previously known from Bernays Propaganda, FxPxOx, XAXAXA, My Tear…

21vek (“21st Century”) explores an expressive pallet of influences ranging from post-punk to Macedonian traditional music.

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KOIKOI (Srb)

Marko Grabež (guitar, vocal)
Ivana Miljković  (synth, vocal)
Emilija Đorđević (bass, vocal)
Ivan Pavlović Gizmo (drums, samples)

KOIKOI are a genre-fluid, ass-moving and mood-swinging indie rock band from Belgrade, Serbia that quickly became one of the hottest new names on the ex Yugoslavian indie scene.  With their wonderful first album ‘Pozivi u stanu’ (Moonlee Records, 2021) and energetic concerts they are quickly gaining a fan base at the crossroads between the glamour of mainstream and the intimacy of the underground. 

KOIKOI are making a name for themselves with a modern trans-genre expression based on indigenous musical heritage, contemporary Western trends and folk traditions. Their music brings an attractive form of a different kind of pop, which can be silky pleasant or playfully noisy, radio sensitive and with all the power of rock music, but always wrapped in a veil of hypnotic Balkan melodics, an intertwinement of ecstasy and nostalgia. They are also characterised by the zealous male-female vocal arrangements with a unique sex appeal which brings together their musical expression.

In the last two years KOIKOI have conquered the most important festivals in ex-Yugoslavian territory (Exit, INmusic, Arsenal, MENT) and performed at various festivals around Europe (Eurosonic, Tallinn Music Week, Peel Slowly And See, PIN Conference Skopje, Sharpe Bratislava) and their performances were very well accepted  by the critics. KOIKOI have also been nominated for the  Music Moves Europe Awards in 2023, awarded by the ESNS festival.

KOIKOI is a pearl for all of you that have known now for a long time, that progressive pop is the new punk.

Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music / Deezer / Tidal

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MATMOS (USA)

In collaboration with Scenasonica (Ita)

Based in Baltimore, Matmos is Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt. The two have been making music as Matmos since 1997, first in San Francisco, and then relocating to Baltimore in 2007 when Daniel began to teach at Johns Hopkins University. They are respected, innovative auteurs in the world of electronic music and sampling culture whose very first album was hailed as “entering electronics Valhalla” by the WIRE magazine for sampling highly unusual sound sources such as the amplified nerve tissue of crayfish. Ever since, they have made music out of a wildly heterogeneous set of objects and sources, including the sound of the pages of bibles turning, water hitting copper plates, liposuction surgery, cameras and VCRs, chin implant surgery, contact microphones on human hair, rat cages, tanks of helium, a cow uterus, human skulls, snails, cigarettes, cards shuffling, laser eye surgery, whoopee cushions, balloons, latex fetish clothing, rhinestones, Polish trains, insects, life support systems, inflatable blankets, rock salt, solid gold coins, the sound of a frozen stream thawing in the sun, a five-gallon bucket of oatmeal, snails interrupting the path of a laser and altering the pitch of a light sensitive theremin, a PVC police riot shield, silicon breast implants, and their washing machine. These raw materials are manipulated into surprisingly accessible forms, often supplemented by traditional musical instruments played by internationally celebrated guest musicians from their circle of friends and collaborators. The result is a model of electronic composition as a relational network that connects sources and outcomes; information about the process of creation activates the listening experience, providing the listener with entry points into sometimes densely allusive, baroque recordings that have the direct sensory immediacy of pop music.

Matmos has collaborated with various artists across media and distinct disciplines. A partial list of musical collaborators includes Bjork, The Kronos Quartet, Terry Riley, Marshall Allan (Sun Ra Arkestra), So Percussion, Anohni, Yo La Tengo, The Rachel’s, Oneohtrix Point Never, Jefferson Friedman, Zeena Parkins, J.G. Thirlwell, Jeff Carey, Wobbly, David Tibet, and Mouse On Mars. The diversity of this list, comprising internationally celebrated pop stars, minimalist composers, giants of jazz and indie rock, and innovative improvisers and electronic musicians, indicates the range across genres and musical scenes that have been the hallmark of Matmos’ varied and mercurial career. Matmos have made musical soundtracks to films by acclaimed filmmakers such as Daria Martin and John Cameron Mitchell (on “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”, written by Neil Gaiman and starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning). Matmos has collaborated with theatrical directors such as Young Jean Lee (on “The Appeal” and “We’re All Gonna Die”) and Robert Wilson (on “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic”, starring Willem Dafoe, Anohni, and Marina Abramovic). The band has released over twelve albums, and numerous EPs for the labels Matador and Thrill Jockey. Matmos have been electronic music tutors at the distinguished and highly selective Darmstadt Ferienkurse, guest artists at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University, visiting faculty at Harvard University in the “Learning from Performers” series and presented our work at music departments such as Princeton, U.C. Berkeley, UVA, SciArc, Indiana University, and the San Francisco Art Institute. Matmos have performed all over the world, including key performances at Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall, Walt Disney Hall, Orchard Hall in Tokyo, Santa Cecilia in Rome, MUTEK in Mexico City, Radio City Music Hall, the Sydney Festival in Sydney, Australia, and the Centres Georges Pompidou in Paris, and have had residencies at the INA/GRM in Paris, and at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Tuscany. In 2022 Thrill Jockey released “Regards / Uklony dla Boguslaw Schaeffer”, a manipulation of the Polish electroacoustic composer’s works.

http://vague-terrain.com/

Modern Quartet (Srb)

Modern Quartet appeared on the alternative music scene in Novi Sad at the end of the 80s of the last century. At first, it was the solo project of sound designer Ivan Milinkov – Vanjus and expanded into an electronic duet with the arrival of Igor Lečić – Leka. The cooperation wasn’t only limited to studio work as Modern Quartet often gives live performances. Their work is based on the bold combination of digital and analog, often including other musicians and upgrading their sound with the incorporation of video production at live shows. 

They received international recognition with the release of the ‘Suba Tributo’ album, for which they contributed the song ‘Tantos Desejos’ from the album ‘SUBA’. Sao Paulo Confessions’. The mixture of modern electronic music, dnb, jazz, and house music was an excellent starting point for the arrival of the dominant vocalist Daniel Mudrinski – Mastabear and this cooperation was also released in 2004 on the only official band’s release ‘The Dark Side of the Mood’ (B92)

In 2009 they performed at the Exit festival on the SUBA stage, which was organized as a tribute to the legendary Serbian-Brazilian musician, producer, and composer Mitar Subotič – Suba.

Today Modern Quartet is a small hedonistic sanctuary, preserving musical and personal integrity with a constantly changing form and style. They rarely perform live, so their appearance at the 24th Sajeta Festival is one not to be missed.

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DJ S. Putnik (Aut)

Born in the seventies, he already started collecting records as a child, generally fascinated by musical equipment and instruments. His passion for music led him to djing lots of genres, from Balkans to Dub, from World Music through Jazz, Funk, and Soul into all varieties of Electronic Music. His DJ sets are known to be spontaneous and eclectic, dissolving genres into a groove-orientated, danceable journey through the world of music. He was a resident DJ at Klagenfurt’s infamous underground location „Mellow Lounge“ or the „Russian Style Diskoteka“ series in Graz and performed in Austrian clubs like Postgarage, PPC, Flex, Ost-Club or on festivals like „Fragole on Air“ in Trieste, „Geschichtsforum 89|09“ and „Theaterformen“ in Berlin. Since 2020 he is involved in PSI Music, a label focused on the production of high-quality video & audio releases across diverse musical genres.

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