• Music

    Ilia Belorukov & Marina Džukljev – Everything Changes, Nothing Disappears

    September 5, 2024 - By 

    Ilia Belorukov is a multi-instrumentalist who hails from Russia, but since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he has been a resident of Novi Sad Serbia and will probably be for awhile.  He is making wonderful use of his time by collaborating with local talent.  Marina Džukljev is a pianst and first-rate improvisor, so between the two, they have come up with seven works which flow quietly but giving off an air of foreboding.  There are elements of early piano works of John Cage and free jazz, giving this album a fine sheen.

  • Music

    Samo Salamon, Vasil Hadžimanov & Ra-Kalam Bob Moses – Dances of Freedom

    February 4, 2024 - By 

    From Samo Salamon’s Bandcamp site: “An amazing trio, I love both of these players so much. I have had the privilege to play and tour with Bob in trio with Arild Andersen and he has been one of my heroes for year. Absolute blast on stage, always!!!! I have learned so much from him. Vasil, my brother from the South, has been one of my favorite pianists. We spent a beautiful week together on a workshop in Novo Mesto as mentors and I’m so happy we were able to do this one with Bob. So happy about the album, very…

  • Music

    Szilárd Mezei Trio – Ink​á​bb (Rather)

    July 26, 2023 - By 

    Serbian-Hungarian multi-instrumentalist and composer Szilárd Mezei is perhaps the most adventurous musician coming out of Hungary these days, and that’s saying a lot, considering the great quality of improvisers who have come from that country (think of the legendary A.E. Bizottság, for example).  This is a trio album from 2008 where he plays viola while Ernő Hock handles the double bass and István Csík plays drums.  Unique.

  • Music

    Magicien Blanc – End The Beginning

    June 17, 2023 - By 

    A fellow expat, Christian Locke (Magicien Blanc) has come up with one of the best prog rock albums I’ve heard in a while.  There are some cues from French and Italian prog bands from the 1970s and 1980s, some influence of bands of the Berlin school and Goblin, and it sounds as fresh as anything coming out of 2023.  Very well done!

  • Music

    Banat Tamburitza Orchestra – Serbian Dance Band in New Jersey, ca. 1949​-​50

    November 20, 2022 - By 

    Canary Records produces another excellent collection of archival music, this time from Serbia.  From his Bandcamp site: “The Banat Tamburitza band are said to have been formed around 1912 or ’13 in Elizabeth, New Jersey by Serbian immigrants from the village of Sânpetru Mare (then-population about 2,000) in the Banat region of present-day Timiș county of western Romania. A group by the same name recorded for Columbia in the mid-20s for Columbia and then in the mid-40s for the Sonart label with the renowned Bosnian singer Edo Ljubić (b. 1912; d. 1993) at which point a reference in Miriam Lidster…

  • Music

    Vartra – Basma

    October 25, 2022 - By 

    Our beloved friends at CPL-Music have submitted a bizarre and completely engrossing album of ethereal tribal music from Serbia in the form of Vartra.  The band was founded in 2017 by Siniša Gavrić and sisters Ivana and Aleksandra Stošić.  What makes the music so interesting is that it not only draws from Serbian folk themes, but also Vlach themes as well.  The Vlachs are terribly underrepresented in folkloric music, and the chants on this disc serve to remedy this issue.

  • Music

    MAiKA – Balkannibalism

    September 24, 2022 - By 

    In a land of amazing bands and ensembles, MAiKA have managed to forcefully grab my attention.  While they call themselves an alternative dance-punk band, there’s so much more to the music.  The energy is amazing, the voices cut right through you in a way that most indie music can’t, and the fact that they combine brass band music with punk gives the music an authentic, punchy feel. From their Bandcamp site: “From the perspective (both musical and visual) of MAiKA, Balkan is an absurd mix of contrasts: religion and tradition combined with modern technology, natural beauty with destructive politics, mud with…

  • Music

    Ansambl Mileta Petrovića – Veseli Romi

    September 17, 2022 - By 

    The Ansambl Mileta Petrovića were a band out of the former Yugoslavia (namely, the area of Niš, Serbia) who were around from the early 1980s until around 1991, before the erstwhile Communist union fell apart and hell broke out everywhere.  Radio Martiko document some of their finer moments on this album.

  • Film & Television - Music - Youtube

    Zoran Simjanović – Grlom u Jagode

    July 26, 2022 - By 

    Zoran Simjanović was a film music composer, film music editor and soundtrack composer from Serbia in the Former Yugoslavia.  While talking with my girlfriend, we discussed the passing of actor Branko Cvejić, and she made mention that he starred in the TV series Grlom u Jagode.  The soundtrack was quite popular in its day, and Simjanović composed this slice of Yugo-nostalgia.