by Ring Ring | 25.12.2021.
On the occasion of the jubilee of the prestigious Belgrade Ring Ring Festival, the record company Multimedia Music has released a representative compilation album “Ring Ring, 25 years – local artists”.
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At the end of last year, the oldest existing domestic festival of alternative music, Ring Ring, presented its twenty-fifth edition to a loyal audience. This also marked the 25th anniversary of the festival, during which more than 300 concerts of artists from all continents were held.
However, the festival has always been a place where local artists had the opportunity to show their creativity, current projects, collaborations with musicians from around the world. The list of local artists who performed at the festival is quite large, so that this compilation album, which marks the jubilee, could not contain even a tenth of what the festival presented to the audience at concerts in Belgrade.
When the idea of organizing a festival of alternative music was born in 1996, at this same time of year, it took less time to realize than it took to prepare the disc that marks the jubilee. According to Bojan Đorđević, the founder and artistic director of the festival – one of the most difficult tasks was to “pack” so many important performances, unusual projects, world premieres in less than 80 minutes.
There are 12 compositions on the album. Among them is a recording from the first concert, held on May 22, 1996, which featured Erne Kiralj, Chris Cutler and Stevan Kovac Tikmajer, but also a composition by Tijana Stankovic and Ana Kravanje, performed at the latest, 25th festival, November 28, 2021.
CD “Ring Ring, 25 years – local artists” open the recording of the concert of Novi Sad pianist Marina Dzukljev and Hungarian percussionist Aron Porteleki, which was the world premiere. The album features several more recordings of projects performed at the festival for the first time. Two of them refer to the international projects of the singer Svetlana Spajić: Metamorphic Orchestra, as well as the cooperation with the world-famous avant-garde orchestra Zeitkratzer.
Of the local jazz creators, the album features the most prolific and most prominent artist, Silard Mezei, as well as the groups Fish in Oil and Dragon’s Fuel.
Members of the Zrenjanin duo Blank Disc were presented with their composition, but also as part of the large international project Šalter Ensemble. The Neuroleptic Trio from Subotica offered a part of their concert performance at the festival, and the live recording is the premiere performance of the composition by Svetlana Maras, played by Branko Dzinovic and Aleksandar Latkovic in the Belgrade Philharmonic Hall.
Compilation “Ring Ring, 25 years – local artists” give an excellent cross-section of exciting local scene and after more than two decades (in the late nineties B92 released three compilations of music from festivals held in ’96, ’97 and ’99) returns music from festivals to local CDs shops.
The album was released thanks to the support of the Fund for Cultural Giving at SOKOJ. It is available at all Multimedia Music stores, online, as well as on all relevant music platforms.
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🔗 A detailed insight into the CD “Ring Ring, 25 years – Local artists”
🔗 CD “Ring Ring, 25 years – Local artists” (YouTube Music)
by Marija Vitas | 21.12.2021.
On December 21, 2021, Multimedia Music label, in collaboration with the Ring Ring Association, released a compilation CD titled “Ring Ring, 25 Years – Local Artists”, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Ring Ring festival.
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(liner notes by Bojan Đorđević)
1. Marina Džukljev & Áron Porteleki – Wonder Marks (excerpt)
(Marina Džukljev & Áron Porteleki)
Marina Džukljev – piano
Áron Porteleki – drums, viola
This duo performed together for the first time at the Ring Ring festival in May 2018, at the Students Cultural Center. Both Džukljev from Serbia and Porteleki from Hungary performed several times at the festival with different projects and will be on the festival stage again. They are the future of European improvised music. Marina is a pianist, educator and active performer in the fields of free improvisation, contemporary classical and applied music. She collaborates with a wide range of multimedia artists across Europe. On the other side, bright young face of Hungarian new and improvised music scene Áron is member of half a dozen bands. How many musicians do you know that play drums as well as viola?
We are gratefull to Založba Klopotec and Iztok Zupan for the right to use this excerpt from the CD Wonder Marks on our compilation.
2. Király Ernő / Chris Cutler/ Stevan Kovač Tickmayer – Trigonom
(Király / Cutler / Tickmayer)
Király Ernő – zitherphone
Chris Cutler – drums
Stevan Kovač Tickmayer – piano
This was recorded in May 1996 at the opening concert of the first Ring Ring festival. Király, an outstanding composer and performer, was a unique artist in contemporary music circles in Yugoslavia, but not discovered elsewhere. Tickmayer, on the other hand, already started his international career a decade before as a performer and composer. He introduced Király’s music to Cutler, great drummer and the founder of the Recommended Records. Cutler than asked for more music and ReR released an album of the great composer. Knowing that the festival is the place for old and young artists from Serbia, but also with desire to give respect to all three, the offer was made – Would you meet in Belgrade for the first time as a trio and perform at the festival? No wonder, it was immediate: YES.
We are grateful to Fond B92 for the right to use this excerpt on this compilation. It has been originally released by Radio B92 on the live album Ring Ring 96.
3. Šalter ensemble – The Šalter
(Robert Rozsa)
Robert Rozsa – electronics
Irena Tomažin – voice
Marina Džukljev – piano
Tena Novak Vincek – violin
Srđan Muc – guitar
Jonas Kocher – accordion
Nenad Kovačić – percussion
Tomaž Grom – double bass
Bertrand Denzler – saxophone
Julien Megroz – percussion
Roko Crnić – electric bass
Samo Kutin – hurdy-gurdy
Initiative of Swiss accordion player & composer Jonas Kocher to bring together artists from the Balkans and Switzerland has resulted in many workshops, festivals, collaborations in the period of last 15 years. This one – Šalter ensemble was a joint venture of four associations and festivals in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Switzerland and of 12 artists from five countries. All of them took part in the preparation, performances and the recording. Good news: they are preparing the new program!
We are gratefull to Zavod Sploh for the right to use this composition from an album Štiri dela.
4. Dragon’s Fuel – Turbo Fuelk
(M. Čurčić & L. Kovač)
Vojislav Savkov – tenor & soprano sax
Predrag Okiljević – tenor sax
Marko Čurčić – bass
Lav Kovač – drums
The Novi Sad based quartet (since 2020 they are quintet) was a new name on the local jazz scene when they performed at the festival for the first time, 2018 and most of them were in their twenties at the time. But, their dedication to creative music and live performances brought them to many stages. They released three albums so far, all for their independent label Horz. The song on this CD was taken from their second album Oranges (2019) and we are grateful to Horz for the right to use the song here.
5. Fish in Oil – Odakle ti pravo?
(Bratislav Radovanović)
Bratislav Radovanović – guitar
Branislav Radojković – bass guitar
Dušan Petrović – saxophone
Tom Feđa Franklin – drums
Veljko Nikolić (Papa Nik) – percussion
The only fully Belgrade band on this album, Fish in Oil is the story of creativity, patience and friendship. The band created by painter, composer and guitar player Braca Radovanović has existed for 28 years. The story started in Priština with different line-up, but over the last 10+ years the band has not changed members and the results are evident. They have released 4 albums during that period and played many festivals and club show in the region. THe new album is coming out in March 2022. Is it jazz or rock or downtown NY in Belgrade?
The song Odakle ti pravo? has not been released before.
6. Ana Kravanja & Tijana Stanković – 11-7-12
(Tijana Stanković / Ana Kravanja)
Ana Kravanja – violin, voice
Tijana Stanković – violin, voice, kazoo
These two ladies are the example of many fruitful collaborations between musicians from Slovenia and Serbia. As creative musicians they are individually involved in many separate projects like the band Širom and Kačis (Ana) or Svetlana Spajić Group and Lenhart Tapes (Tijana), but here they stand next to each other, using the same instrument(s) and creating magic, like they did on the festival’s 25th edition in November 2021. They met for the first time at the workshop in Budapest, started to work together, using every opportunity to improvise together. The song is taken from their self-released debut trkam kličem odganjam / kucam dozivam teram with their permission.
7. Mezei Szilárd trio – Elég
(Mezei Szilárd)
Szilárd Mezei – viola
Róbert Benkő – double bass
Tamás Geröly – drums
This recording is from the trio’s performance at the Ring Ring festival in May 2002 and has never been released before. It was the first time that Szilárd performed at the festival and we had great opportunity to host his concerts in different line-ups on several further festival editions. Szilárd Mezei (living in Senta, Serbia) is by far the most fruitful composer and improviser from Serbia. As a leader he has 54 albums released on labels such as FMR, Leo, Klopotec, Odradek, Slam… But, this is not overproduction! To make sure – just check out his music. On this recording he is with the two great improvisers from Hungary who are both very busy playing in many different groups.
8. Svetlana Spajić / Dragana Tomić / Obrad Milić & zeitkratzer – King Peter Song
(music: trad / text: S. Spajić / arr: zeitkratzer & S. Spajić)
Svetlana Spajić – vocal
Dragana Tomić – vocal
Obrad Milić – diple, gusle
Frank Gratkowski – bass clarinet, clarinet
Hild Sofje Tafjord – french horn
Hilary Jeffery – trombone
Reinhold Friedl – piano
Maurice de Martin – drums, percussion
Lisa Marie Landgraf – violin
Burkhard Schlothauer – violin
Nora Krahl – violoncello
Ulrich Phillipp – double bass
When Svetlana Spajić, a traditional artist from Serbia, came up with the idea to perform Serbian songs about the Great War with zeitkratzer, one of the leading ensembles that are performing modern compositions, at the festival, I said: Yes, without hearing a single tune before. The idea to bring together traditional singers and players from Serbia with avant-garde performing group was a challenge for the artists. This carefully arranged / improvised work was a brilliant opening of the festival in 2015. That concert was supported by Goethe-Institut Belgrad. The year later concert in Berlin was recorded and released in 2017 by zeitkratezer records to whom we are grateful for the right to include this song from the album Serbian War Songs.
9. Neuroleptic trio – Furious as the May Wind, boring as the April’s rain
(Neuroleptic trio)
Pásztor Csaba – violin
Levay István – flute
Aleksandar Petrović Mechka – bass, programming
Neuroleptic trio is the band from Subotica, town on the border with Hungary, with more than 20 releases over the period of 15 years. The trio lead by Aleksandar Petrović Mechka had many different line-ups. They have constantly been developing a concept of improvisation by three musicians playing different instruments and using different techniques. Neuroleptic trio performed on the final evening of the festival in 2011.
The song is taken from their self-released EP Desperate Waiting For Spring with their permission. The same song has been released on several compilations.
10. Blank Disc – Good morning spontaneus simplicity
(Srđan Muc / Robert Rozsa)
Srđan Muc – electric guitar, objects
Robert Rozsa – electronics
This duo was formed 1997 in Zrenjanin and since then they have released more than 15 albums, as a duo or in collaboration with other improvisers, from Serbia or Europe. Both of the musicians have been longtime members of alternative rock group Rascep. Srđan and Robert played many times at the festival and as Blank Disc duo, with Rascep or with some foreign artists. Their music and artistic concept have been way ahead of time in Serbia, but for years they were praised by European improvisers. With well known guitarist / improviser Keith Rowe, they played together at the festival’s 14th edition in 2009. Srđan and Robert are also on this compilation as part of the Šalter ensemble (3).
11. Svetlana Maraš – Kamerna muzika: harmonika s elektronikom i violončelom
(Svetlana Maraš)
Performed by: Branko Džinović – accordion / Aleksandar Latković – cello
Svetlana Maraš is surely the most successful new music author from the new generation. She is playing concerts, writing compositions and creating installations. She was an artistic director at Radio Belgrade’s Electronic studio, where she established numerous programs such as artistic residencies, educational courses and most notably, restoration of EMS Synthi 100. She is now the Professor of Creative Music Technology and Co-head of Electronic Studio at Hochschule für Musik FHNW, Basel. This composition written especially for this duo was recorded at Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall just before pandemia fully broke out.
12. Metamorphic Orchestra – Through Hills and Valleys
(traditional / arr: Svetlana Spajić)
Svetlana Spajić – vocal
Tijana Stanković – violin, vocal
Isabelle Duthoit – clarinet, vocal
Marina Džukljev – piano
Franz Hautzinger – trumpet
Bogdan Ranković – bass clarinet, saxophone
Ervin Malina – double bass
Lav Kovač – drums
This creation has quite a story: Project Metamorphic Songs, built by Goethe-Institute Belgrad (who also supported this concert at the festival), included a network of artists and researchers and one of the outcomes was a Collection of Metamorphic Songs, presenting different instances of songs, migration through cultures, the history of their travel, the changes in their features and functions… For the festival in 2019 Svetlana Spajić, the singer and traditional artist, formed the international Metamorphic Orchestra in an attempt to add local examples of this extraordinary collection.
by Bojan Đorđević | 07.12.2021.
The jubilee, 25th Ring Ring, Belgrade’s festival of new, avant-garde, experimental, improv and free jazz music, ended on December 3, 2021 in Studio 6 of Radio Belgrade. The Berlin trio Der Lange Schatten performed that evening.
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So much delay and uncertainty preceded the jubilee Ring Ring, which has made us fulfilled, proud, delighted for 25 years … But we finally welcomed the beginning of the festival, and then those ten festival days flew by like a moment …
A lot of things crossed – this year’s edition of the festival started where the Ring Ring began in 1996 – at Jewish 16, formerly REX, now the “Oneg Shabbat” Jewish Cultural Center, recently opened. The feeling is still magical, the space radiates, the audience and the musicians were thrilled with the opportunity to perform there again.
Members of the domestic Ensemble Studio6 and the Austrian Szene Instrumental feat. Irina Karamarković had this important task: to conquer the stage, coordinate rehearsals and draw the audience into their music worlds.
The next concert was already at the second concert venue to which the festival is related – Studio 6 of Radio Belgrade. It was the first world premiere this year and the performance of the Dutch-American cellist Francis-Marie Uiti, the Austrian pianist Elizabeth Harnik and our harpist Milana Zaric. In the same building, just on the other side, shortly before the concert, an exhibition of photographs “Objectively From Šestica” of the Ring Ring’s permanent companion was opened, as well as concert events in Studio 6 – the famous, tireless el gvojos.
The weekend was reserved for a new space – Drugstore, a club with an enviable reputation, seemingly far from the center and certainly new to many regular festival-goers. Albert Márkos replaced Phil Minton at the last minute, whose arrival was postponed to May 2022.
The free improvisation of this Hungarian cellist with violist Szilard Mezei was a meeting of old friends, who read and follow each other in a sound journey without sound system. And after them, the Akosh S. Trio used their magic to make us forget the cold. Total jazz!
Laurent Bigot has already performed at the festival, 2016, and this time he brought a new set of sound “toys”, only now they were bottles, cans, balloons, stripes … Fun and excitement for 50 people; he could no longer even fit in the small hall of the club. In the big hall, the hosts, the duo Thark, had their concert premiere. They, as well as the band that closed that evening, were greeted by many more people. And the evening was concluded by Kim Myhr and his seven-member band You ǀ Me.
Four guitarists and three drummers perform Myhr’s music, in fact two long compositions, which slowly develop, turn and return to silence. Discipline and freedom.
The last evening in the Drugstore club (December 28), with a new pair of concert excitement, was opened by Ana Kravanja and Tijana Stanković. Two women, two voices and two violins improvise, playing and singing in unison, even when moving around the audience in wide circles, far from each other. It was almost time for this to be a completely Slovenian evening, because apart from Ana, and with the exception of Tijana, some of the most important actors of the local impromptu scene performed. This male duo consisted of percussionist Zlatko Kaučič and double bassist Tomaž Grom. Exciting, innovative, different, as it has already become the standard of the festival.
The return to the Jewish Cultural Center (December 29) brought a too short but interesting performance by the Polish accordionist Zbigniew Hojnacki, and then a brilliant performance by the Berlin trio Jane in Ether. After Magda Mayas (piano), Biljana Vuckova (violin, voice) and Miako Klein (records) finished their performance, long applause and admiration said two things – that the audience was delighted with the concert but also happy to return to this concert space. .
The Berlin scene, so important and rich, has had interesting representatives at the festival for several years. This year, even two performances. After a break of three days, just to breathe the air after Jane in Ether and other excitements, Der Lange Schatten concluded the festival on December 3 with a great performance in Studio 6 of Radio Belgrade. This trio is a true representative of the Berlin scene – musically exciting and all from different countries, and related to Berlin.
After the 25th edition, with seven concert evenings in ten days and one exhibition, the next Ring Ring festival is scheduled for a somewhat shorter period, from 19 to 22 May 2021.
