PERFORMERS
MARIZA, with special guest Tito Paris (Lisbon)
There are two good reasons why you should come to Mariza’s concert: you’ve already seen her live, or you haven’t yet done so. She’ll take care of everything else. You’ll understand each and every thought, though expressed in a language that is probably foreign to you, and feel the weight and charge of the emotions involved. Mariza pushes beyond the confines of the fado genre, freeing her voice to fly above the restrictions of musical tradition. Her immense gifts make her unarguably one of the greats.
This time round at Križanke, Mariza will be appearing in company. With special guest Tito Paris, who has also sung with Cesaria Evora, they will sing the morna of Cape Verde. One night in May, you two, us two, alone …
Wednesday 19 May, 9 pm buy tickets
TANYA TAGAQ (Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada)
This spectacular voice, from millennium-long traditions and with power enough to fill the sails of the largest boats, enchants all generations and even the greatest voice artists of our time. Tanya Tagaq collaborated with Björk on the latter’s Medúlla album and Vespertine concert tour, and recorded her intrepid second album, Auk (Blood), with Mike Patton. Although the fact that she comes from the Aboriginal Inuit people already makes her somewhat unique in today’s music world, this is certainly not the reason why enthusiasm for her live performances is growing so fast. She is one of those rare musicians who is able to conquer any stage she appears on (and to have had an almost full-page concert photograph appear in the New York Times). Anyone who has seen Tanya perform will not want to miss her next concert.
Thursday 20 May, 8.30 pm buy tickets
MAHMOUD AHMED & ALEMAYEHU ESHETE & BADUME’S BAND (Ethiopia, Brittany)
The musical history of Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete defies the usual pattern, for these two lively old men have known life on the streets as much as worldwide fame. They were first part of the glorious flowering of Ethiopian music that resulted from the realisation by Emperor Haile Selassie that power was slipping from his grasp, but were then cut off from the world for many years behind the closed borders of the state, when they weren’t forced into exile by the Mengistu regime.
We are imbibing live performances from the golden years of Ethiopian popular music drop by drop. Last year it was Getatchew Mekurya and the frenzied dance of Melaku Belay; this year it’s Ahmed & Eshete & Badume’s Band. Next year? More please!
Thursday 20 May, 10.00 pm buy tickets
LA MINOR (St Petersburg)
The music of these St Petersburg sorcerers is written in Cyrillic, in A-minor, and draws on the tradition of the dissident socialist movement, where such a thing existed at all in the old Soviet Union. This tough sextet from St Petersburg have thoroughly mined the most precious deposits of prison love songs, mixing these with the celebrated klezmer of Odessa and the remnants of the folksongs played secretly in the cellar dives of the Communist era. ‘The sounds of the underground with a human face,’ say La Minor, played acoustically but amplified, to create that ‘late night’ feeling.
Saturday 22 May, 11 pm buy tickets
NEVCHEHIRLIAN (Marseille)
Nev-che-hir-lian. Frédéric Nevchehirlian. Druga Godba continues its series of concerts showcasing the revival of the Francophone tradition of chanson, which started with the appearance last year of Abd Al Malik. The stage is set for a classic rock band, with two guitars, but it’s the lyrics that will always cast the first spell. Rock is his music and French his language, but what he produces far outstrips any attempt to pigeonhole. Can you have ‘just a song’, just a chanson? Here is just one more of the exceptional children produced by the migrational and colonial policies of the French Republic. What would remain of fraternité and egalité without the palette of colour provided by these Franco-Armenian-Spanish poets?
Sunday 23 May, 8 pm buy tickets
PEYOTI FOR PRESIDENT (London) This multinational group, gathered around singer and guitarist Pietro DiMascio, are following in the footsteps of those who struggle for equality not just through their music but through their whole creative approach. They address the young, who have not yet despaired, and the older generations still able to work towards a better world. It’s all about the joy of living, which is reflected in adrenaline-fuelled live performances that infect the audience with the irresistible urge to dance. Their influences are well-known and alluring, and include such luminaries as Manu Chao, Ojos de Brujo and Ozomatli. Peyoti for President set the London club scene alight in 2007 and their progress through the rest of Europe is, it seems, unstoppable.
Sunday 23 May, 9.30 pm buy tickets
ŠKM BANDA, with guests Mlada Beltinska Banda (Prekmurje)
DIRTMUSIC (Brooklyn, Melbourne, Ljubljana)
TAMIKREST (Kidal, Mali)
Is this rock with a touch of ethno or urban desert blues? Or is it simply the way the new generation wields its guitar, in tune with the cymbals? The answer is ‘yes’ on all counts Put simply, in many respects Beltinska Banda could be considered the oldest rock ‘n’ roll band in Slovenia. Like their successors and the Štefan Kovač Marko Banda, they are heirs to a tradition that doesn’t stop at the far bank of the Mura river but extends all the way to the Niger. How many of us have perhaps thought that it was only after the Tuareg replaced their guns with electric guitars that rock, that most universal of music forms, got its rebellious guitar sound back and became vital once more? Millions of fans of the Tuareg group Tinariwen would nod their agreement without hesitation, celebrating the birth of each new star of Tuareg guitar. Tamikrest, successors to Tinariwen, have plugged cables into their guitars, producing a sound so good it positively smokes, receiving accolades from some of the world’s most influential music magazines, and making the World Music charts this spring more vibrant than they have been for a long while. Dirtmusic’s success on the other hand is something Slovenes should be particularly pleased about. The band’s leader, Chris Eckman, a resident of Ljubljana, has been spending increasing amounts of time in Bamak, where he produced both the Dirtmusic and Tamikrest albums at the legendary Bogolan studio. When a Ljubljana-based American forges an alliance with the people of Mali, shares a stage with their musicians, and even joins them to play the legendary All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, then we are entitled to feel that we still have more lucky stars than we can count.
Monday 24 May, 8.30 pm buy tickets
MAJA OSOJNIK BAND (Vienna)
The multinational city of Vienna welcomed into its midst a Slovenian musician who has since been doing very well for herself. The projects of Maja Osojnik, a singer, instrumentalist and composer, stretch across various music genres, although she is particularly keen on cultivating Slovenia’s folk music heritage, reinterpreting it in collaboration with her Viennese sextet. A few years ago she caught our attention with the album Oblaki so rdeči (Clouds Are Red), which earned her, among other things, a spot at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival. Her latest project, Črne vode (Black Waters), is a step further – and in more ways than simply musical arrangement. The CD sleeve contains translations of the lyrics into over ten world languages – further proof to many, perhaps, of Slovenia’s oddball penchant for all things linguistic. Among Austrians, however, Maja Osojnik is kept in higher regard, it seems, than she is by the Office for Slovenians Abroad. The Austrian MiA Award for culture and arts is not given to any woman with a migration background living and creating in Vienna.
Tuesday 25 May, 8.30 pm buy tickets
WIMME (Samiland, Finland)
Wimme sings songs about the old times – times that the technological revolution just doesn’t get. He is intent on preserving the spirit of the marginalised, repressed and oppressed minority of the extreme north. This master of the yoik, a traditional Sami chant style, will weave metaphysical threads with some of the music we have had the good fortune to hear at previous Druga Godba festivals. That is to say, Wimme and his musical tradition have many elements in common with the heritage of the Native Americans, the Occitans, the Corsicans and the Tuareg. His recently released album Mun is brilliantly realised, setting Wimme on his way to becoming a luminous star of the northern horizons.
Tuesday 25 May, 10 pm buy tickets
There are two good reasons why you should come to Mariza’s concert: you’ve already seen her live, or you haven’t yet done so. She’ll take care of everything else. You’ll understand each and every thought, though expressed in a language that is probably foreign to you, and feel the weight and charge of the emotions involved. Mariza pushes beyond the confines of the fado genre, freeing her voice to fly above the restrictions of musical tradition. Her immense gifts make her unarguably one of the greats.
This time round at Križanke, Mariza will be appearing in company. With special guest Tito Paris, who has also sung with Cesaria Evora, they will sing the morna of Cape Verde. One night in May, you two, us two, alone …
Wednesday 19 May, 9 pm buy tickets
TANYA TAGAQ (Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada)
This spectacular voice, from millennium-long traditions and with power enough to fill the sails of the largest boats, enchants all generations and even the greatest voice artists of our time. Tanya Tagaq collaborated with Björk on the latter’s Medúlla album and Vespertine concert tour, and recorded her intrepid second album, Auk (Blood), with Mike Patton. Although the fact that she comes from the Aboriginal Inuit people already makes her somewhat unique in today’s music world, this is certainly not the reason why enthusiasm for her live performances is growing so fast. She is one of those rare musicians who is able to conquer any stage she appears on (and to have had an almost full-page concert photograph appear in the New York Times). Anyone who has seen Tanya perform will not want to miss her next concert.
Thursday 20 May, 8.30 pm buy tickets
MAHMOUD AHMED & ALEMAYEHU ESHETE & BADUME’S BAND (Ethiopia, Brittany)
The musical history of Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete defies the usual pattern, for these two lively old men have known life on the streets as much as worldwide fame. They were first part of the glorious flowering of Ethiopian music that resulted from the realisation by Emperor Haile Selassie that power was slipping from his grasp, but were then cut off from the world for many years behind the closed borders of the state, when they weren’t forced into exile by the Mengistu regime.
We are imbibing live performances from the golden years of Ethiopian popular music drop by drop. Last year it was Getatchew Mekurya and the frenzied dance of Melaku Belay; this year it’s Ahmed & Eshete & Badume’s Band. Next year? More please!
Thursday 20 May, 10.00 pm buy tickets
LA MINOR (St Petersburg)
The music of these St Petersburg sorcerers is written in Cyrillic, in A-minor, and draws on the tradition of the dissident socialist movement, where such a thing existed at all in the old Soviet Union. This tough sextet from St Petersburg have thoroughly mined the most precious deposits of prison love songs, mixing these with the celebrated klezmer of Odessa and the remnants of the folksongs played secretly in the cellar dives of the Communist era. ‘The sounds of the underground with a human face,’ say La Minor, played acoustically but amplified, to create that ‘late night’ feeling.
Saturday 22 May, 11 pm buy tickets
NEVCHEHIRLIAN (Marseille)
Nev-che-hir-lian. Frédéric Nevchehirlian. Druga Godba continues its series of concerts showcasing the revival of the Francophone tradition of chanson, which started with the appearance last year of Abd Al Malik. The stage is set for a classic rock band, with two guitars, but it’s the lyrics that will always cast the first spell. Rock is his music and French his language, but what he produces far outstrips any attempt to pigeonhole. Can you have ‘just a song’, just a chanson? Here is just one more of the exceptional children produced by the migrational and colonial policies of the French Republic. What would remain of fraternité and egalité without the palette of colour provided by these Franco-Armenian-Spanish poets?
Sunday 23 May, 8 pm buy tickets
PEYOTI FOR PRESIDENT (London) This multinational group, gathered around singer and guitarist Pietro DiMascio, are following in the footsteps of those who struggle for equality not just through their music but through their whole creative approach. They address the young, who have not yet despaired, and the older generations still able to work towards a better world. It’s all about the joy of living, which is reflected in adrenaline-fuelled live performances that infect the audience with the irresistible urge to dance. Their influences are well-known and alluring, and include such luminaries as Manu Chao, Ojos de Brujo and Ozomatli. Peyoti for President set the London club scene alight in 2007 and their progress through the rest of Europe is, it seems, unstoppable.
Sunday 23 May, 9.30 pm buy tickets
ŠKM BANDA, with guests Mlada Beltinska Banda (Prekmurje)
DIRTMUSIC (Brooklyn, Melbourne, Ljubljana)
TAMIKREST (Kidal, Mali)
Is this rock with a touch of ethno or urban desert blues? Or is it simply the way the new generation wields its guitar, in tune with the cymbals? The answer is ‘yes’ on all counts Put simply, in many respects Beltinska Banda could be considered the oldest rock ‘n’ roll band in Slovenia. Like their successors and the Štefan Kovač Marko Banda, they are heirs to a tradition that doesn’t stop at the far bank of the Mura river but extends all the way to the Niger. How many of us have perhaps thought that it was only after the Tuareg replaced their guns with electric guitars that rock, that most universal of music forms, got its rebellious guitar sound back and became vital once more? Millions of fans of the Tuareg group Tinariwen would nod their agreement without hesitation, celebrating the birth of each new star of Tuareg guitar. Tamikrest, successors to Tinariwen, have plugged cables into their guitars, producing a sound so good it positively smokes, receiving accolades from some of the world’s most influential music magazines, and making the World Music charts this spring more vibrant than they have been for a long while. Dirtmusic’s success on the other hand is something Slovenes should be particularly pleased about. The band’s leader, Chris Eckman, a resident of Ljubljana, has been spending increasing amounts of time in Bamak, where he produced both the Dirtmusic and Tamikrest albums at the legendary Bogolan studio. When a Ljubljana-based American forges an alliance with the people of Mali, shares a stage with their musicians, and even joins them to play the legendary All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, then we are entitled to feel that we still have more lucky stars than we can count.
Monday 24 May, 8.30 pm buy tickets
MAJA OSOJNIK BAND (Vienna)
The multinational city of Vienna welcomed into its midst a Slovenian musician who has since been doing very well for herself. The projects of Maja Osojnik, a singer, instrumentalist and composer, stretch across various music genres, although she is particularly keen on cultivating Slovenia’s folk music heritage, reinterpreting it in collaboration with her Viennese sextet. A few years ago she caught our attention with the album Oblaki so rdeči (Clouds Are Red), which earned her, among other things, a spot at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival. Her latest project, Črne vode (Black Waters), is a step further – and in more ways than simply musical arrangement. The CD sleeve contains translations of the lyrics into over ten world languages – further proof to many, perhaps, of Slovenia’s oddball penchant for all things linguistic. Among Austrians, however, Maja Osojnik is kept in higher regard, it seems, than she is by the Office for Slovenians Abroad. The Austrian MiA Award for culture and arts is not given to any woman with a migration background living and creating in Vienna.
Tuesday 25 May, 8.30 pm buy tickets
WIMME (Samiland, Finland)
Wimme sings songs about the old times – times that the technological revolution just doesn’t get. He is intent on preserving the spirit of the marginalised, repressed and oppressed minority of the extreme north. This master of the yoik, a traditional Sami chant style, will weave metaphysical threads with some of the music we have had the good fortune to hear at previous Druga Godba festivals. That is to say, Wimme and his musical tradition have many elements in common with the heritage of the Native Americans, the Occitans, the Corsicans and the Tuareg. His recently released album Mun is brilliantly realised, setting Wimme on his way to becoming a luminous star of the northern horizons.
Tuesday 25 May, 10 pm buy tickets