December 2025 - Ring Ring

An Explosion of Deep Emotions, Powerful Energy, and Playful Rhythms: Naked & Monika Lakatos Trio

by Ring Ring | 24.12.2025.

A concert by the Serbian band Naked and the Hungarian ensemble Monika Lakatos Trio will take place on January 29, 2026, at SKCNS “Fabrika”, starting at 8:00 PM. This musical evening is organized as part of the Hungarian–Serbian Cultural Season 2025/2026 and also represents a special “Pocket Globe Evening”, a spin-off event of the Novi Sad–based Pocket Globe Festival.

. . .

After three editions of the “Pocket Globe” Festival (2022–2024) and a pause in 2025 for justified reasons, a highly attractive and exciting “Pocket Globe Evening” will be held in late January 2026.

Two established ensembles – one Hungarian (Monika Lakatos Trio) and one Serbian (Naked) – will join forces on stage, bringing together their different yet compatible musical energies, emotions, and forms of expression. They will present their joint project and intriguing artistic concept “Neked”, which they have been developing over the past several years. One of the results of this collaboration will be an album of the same name, scheduled for release in March 2026.

In this unusual and exceptional fusion of Naked and Monika Lakatos Trio, we hear Monika’s deeply moving voice that stirs the soul, the precise rhythms of the Vlach Roma tradition, and the layered Balkan trippy-dub jazz of the Serbian band.

Although Naked’s music is marked by a strong charge, its vibe is deep and multilayered, with compositions that are often melodic and even lyrical – earning them the label “songs without words”. Such emotional richness provides the perfect foundation for Monika Lakatos, an outstanding singer of Vlach Roma heritage. With her unmistakable tone, vibrato, and expressiveness, Monika strikes listeners straight in the heart. When a third element is added – the playful, precise, and fast rhythms of Vlach Roma music performed on guitar and percussion by two members of Monika’s trio – the result is an explosion of deep emotion, powerful energy, and complex musicianship.

The striking name of the project and upcoming album, “Neked”, created through a play on words and meanings, differs by only one letter from the name of the Belgrade-based band that initiated the collaboration, while also referencing the Hungarian language, where “neked” means “to you”.

“To you… and to all those who are no longer with us”, explain the members of Naked. “The period during which the compositions for this album were created over the past few years was filled with reflections on the passage of time, the transience of life, and dear people who have left this world”.

Naked and Monika Lakatos Trio first crossed paths back in 2011, at the “Babel Sound” Festival in Hungary, and have since met at various European festivals and events, including WOMEX.

“The idea of collaboration had been smoldering since those early encounters. When we heard Monika’s voice, we knew it would fit perfectly with Naked’s music. However, we only began working seriously on the joint project and album in the summer of 2021”.

The raw demo recordings of the first two songs, “Csábítós” and “Ti, trebaš mi”, were created in just two days. After initial reserve and understandable tension among musicians from different cultural backgrounds during the first studio day, everything began to fall into place.

“Already on the second day, brilliance and love emerged, and we knew we were a good match. After those two days in the studio, guitarist Mazsi invited us to be guests at a Monika Lakatos Trio concert at the Babel Sound Festival. When we performed those two pieces together, the audience went wild with enthusiasm”.

This concert evening is part of the “Hungarian-Serbian Cultural Season 2025/2026”, whose goal is to further highlight the centuries-old historical, cultural, and artistic ties between the two nations, create new meeting points for contemporary cultural actors, and strengthen existing connections between communities in both countries.

Through its guiding concept and slogan “Two Nations – One Rhythm”, the “Hungarian-Serbian Cultural Season” creates opportunities for both countries to present their own and shared cultural values, celebrating the beauty of togetherness. As part of the Cultural Season, the “Ring Ring” Association has already realized cooperation with Collegium Hungaricum Belgrade through a concert by Marina Džukljev and Bálint Bolcsó at the UK “Parobrod” on November 28, as well as a performance by Deva at the BITEF Theatre on December 12.

Naked & Monika Lakatos Trio consists of: Branislav Radojković (bass guitar), Goran Milošević (drums, percussion), Đorđe Mijušković (violin), Rastko Uzunović (clarinet / tenor saxophone), Antal Máté Kovács (percussion), Mihály “Mazsi” Rostás (guitar, vocals), and Monika Lakatos (vocals).

Tickets for the concert are available via gigstix, at a price of 800 RSD.

The concert evening is supported by the Hungarian National Cultural Fund, Collegium Hungaricum Belgrade, and SKCNS Fabrika. The organizer is the Ring Ring Association.