• Music

    Kristo Rodzevski – Black Earth

    Here is something rather magnificent coming out of Macedonia in the form of Kristo Rodzevski’s latest album through Defkaz, a great Greek label.  There is hope for the Balkans yet!  From the Defkaz Bandcamp site: “Black Earth has eleven traditional Macedonian songs infused with African aesthetics, including Gnawa undertones, Congo rumba, and African field recordings. The core of the traditional Macedonian harmonies and rhythms was developed over the centuries from the Ancient Greek and Roman Empire’s lyricism, Byzantium’s chants, and the Ottoman Empire’s classical music progressions, by way of multiple migrations, storytelling, wars, myths, tribalism, reconciliations, etc.) In a nutshell,…

  • Music

    Dimitar Dodovski – D​é​rive

    Norman Records does a far more in-depth job introducing the world to the music of North Macedonian composer Dimitar Dodovski a wee bit better than I could.  From their promo sheet: “”Dimitar Dodovski approaches his craft of granular synthesis from a melodic perspective at most definitely the warmer end of the drone spectrum. Opening track ‘I’ introduces, of all things, mallet-struck chimes amongst the digital layers. The mallets recur on the following track (‘II’), but only when you least expect them. Staccato synth rises from a mist-draped lake of sound, each milky chord change rung by a bell. Pixelated textures…

  • Music

    Baklava – From Skopje With Love

    Our friends over at the indomitable CPL-Music have released a charming disc of traditional music from my second homeland of Skopje, Macedonia!  Baklava, the subject of today’s listening, work with folk music and does sterling work reinterpreting it for a more modern, updated sound.  Speaking of that sound, the band develop it with a wealth of instruments, including ancient local ones like the tambura, the kaval and the daf, as well as bagpipes, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, accordion and (the very much non-Macedonian) ukulele.  The music is upbeat, fun, and shines a good light on the wonders of (North) Macedonian music.

  • Music

    Kuzman – Fine Wound

    Kuzman Markoski has produced a rather fine EP’s worth of soundtrack-style music.  The composer, thereminist and sound designer offers a groove-filled, damn-near danceable disc.  From his Bandcamp site: “Kuzman is a versatile musician and audio-visual artist based in Skopje, Macedonia. With a background in classical training, he has honed his skills as a composer, thereminist and sound designer. This highly anticipated release comes two years after his debut solo album “Collective Zero” that marked Kuzman’s first foray into the world of studio albums as a solo artist, after his successful tenure with the Berlin-based band The Protagonist and the collaboration…

  • Music

    Igor Vasilev Novogradska – Bikini Moon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

    If Andrei Tarkovsky had Edward Artemiev as his soundtrack specialist and early Roman Polański had Krzysztof Komeda, then it stands to reason that Macedonian auteur Milcho Manchevski would have his in Igor Vasilev Novogradska. Parts of this new soundtrack are filled with dirge-like qualities befitting this movie, but what truly impressed me were at the end of the album.  Chessboard sounds like it would fit somewhere in the Fourth World period of Jon Hassell’s early work, and on the ninth and final track, if you go to about 07:26 into it, you will hear a song so blatantly new wave…

  • Music

    Toni Dimitrov – Live at SlovoKult literARTour 2020

    Composer, radio presenter, label owner, philosopher and old friend Toni Dimitrov has released a new album on the ever-interesting Kalamine Records.  Here are some of the details regarding the release, courtesy of their Bandcamp page: Performance at SlovoKult literARTour 2020 in Gevgelija, as a part of Bosh Festival. SlovoKult literARTour is a small international festival of contemporary art, text and poetry, taking place in Skopje and Gevgelija, Macedonia and Berlin, Germany. www.slovokult-literatur.de