Refreshed and Fired Up: A Look Back at “Todo Mundo 2025”
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You know those rare moments in life when you can literally feel yourself changing? There aren’t many, and that’s exactly why they’re so huge. One of those moments happened to me exactly around this time, 28 years ago. It felt like the doors to a whole new world had opened. I tiptoed in, quietly, like I wasn’t even supposed to be there, and started looking around. I didn’t understand much of what I saw, but I knew – just knew – that I loved it. And that it felt deeply, deeply mine.
It’s been almost three decades, and I’m still living in that world. I love it even more now, and thank God, I understand it a lot better. I don’t sneak around anymore – I sit comfortably in an armchair, smiling, watching younger folks stumble through the same door with wide eyes and confused hearts. Joni Mitchell captured that feeling in “The Circle Game”, and The Rolling Stones in “As Tears Go By”.
I was nineteen and didn’t know a damn thing about anything. But I loved music, deeply. I heard on the radio that some Japanese jazz band was coming to Belgrade, to some festival that had “new music” in its subtitle. When you’re nineteen, everything is new. I bought a ticket and headed to the “Rex” Cultural Centre, in Jevrejska Street. The band was called Ground Zero. After that concert, nothing in my life was ever the same.
There were ten or so musicians on stage, playing a mix of jazz, traditional Japanese music, avant-garde, and even some pop – but all done in a totally unique way. Their way. Capital T.
The horns were growling, the guitars were shrieking, the Japanese instruments were Japan-ing like mad, and my heart was pounding out of my chest.
The band was led by guitarist Otomo Yoshihide. I walked into Rex one person, and came out someone else. Never before – or since – have I experienced anything like that. Words may be my favorite toys, but even I can’t find the right ones to describe what I felt that night.
That was my very first time at the “Ring Ring” festival. After that, I went every year. Late May at “Rex” became one of the most cherished traditions of my life. The green treetops lining Jevrejska Street always held a special meaning for me. I discovered so much amazing music and so many incredible bands there.
In this country, I never had any doubt about which festival was the festival. Exit? Please. Don’t make me laugh.
Ground Zero’s frontman, Otomo, kept coming back to “Ring Ring” over the years with different bands and collaborators. Seven times in total – I caught five of those shows. They were always great, but never quite like that first one in May ’97. And then, last night, came his seventh appearance – at the 29th edition of “Ring Ring”. So many years have passed since that life-altering concert, but last night, Otomo brought me closer to that feeling than ever before.
Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Quintet closed this year’s “Ring Ring” at “Karmakoma”. He formed the group right after Ground Zero disbanded in the late ‘90s. If you’ve ever wondered what a musical version of an “orgasm” might sound like, you might’ve found your answer at last night’s show.
Silence. Noise. Gasping. Growling. Whimpering. Shattering. And melodies – dreamlike, soaked in the sweat of daily life – all of it filled the little club near the Danube.
We heard Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”, and also Jim O’Rourke’s “Eureka” – who’s been one of the biggest musical figures in my life for over 25 years. Both pieces were completely reimagined in Otomo’s gloriously warped style. I got chills all over my body. And when “Eureka” started, my friend – who had been with me at that Ground Zero show, and who had gone through the exact same transformation I did – just leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. We’re the same age, we both adore Jim, and we both became different people after that 1997 concert.
If I had to sum up last night’s performance in just one word, it would be emotion. When you tear up at a concert by a Japanese avant-garde jazz band… you know something big is happening.
I want to publicly thank Bojan Đorđević for creating “Ring Ring” nearly thirty years ago – a festival that brought tons of joy into my life, and continues to do so. For me, there simply isn’t a more important music festival in this poor, broken country.
Back in 1997, I was nineteen. If that Ground Zero concert had never happened, today I’d be 47. But it did happen. And among the million beautiful things it gave me, one of the most precious is this: it stopped time. So now, you’re reading the words of someone who’s far younger than 47. Only music can do that.
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LET’S RECAP THE PROGRAM OF THE 29TH “RING RING” FESTIVAL
May 23, Studio 6 of Radio Belgrade
Marina Džukljev & dieb13 (Serbia/Austria)
May 24, Jewish Cultural Center
Pavel Fajt (Czech Republic)
Vicente/Dikeman/Škorić/Radojković (Portugal/USA/Serbia)
May 25, Karmakoma club
Oliver Steidle & Chris Pitsiokos (Germany)
ONJQ (Japan)
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The first thing I want to say at the very beginning of this article is that the final preparations and organization for the “Pocket Globe” festival have never been more difficult. The reason is serious and grim: eleven days before the third edition of our festival, the roof of Novi Sad’s Railway Station collapsed, claiming the lives of 14 people, with one of the severely injured passing away 16 days later, on November 17.
This tragic event will rightfully continue to shake Serbian society and its political scene. During the period of shock and the initial wave of profound grief felt by the people of Serbia, particularly the citizens of Novi Sad, we were nevertheless compelled to go ahead with what had already been scheduled and planned, especially since the official three-day mourning period had passed.
Although the official mourning on a national level ended, the profound despair, suffering, and dissatisfaction continued – and still linger – in people’s hearts.
This situation and atmosphere naturally led to the “Pocket Globe” festival seeing its smallest audience yet. Those who did attend described the experience as almost therapeutic, offering a fleeting sense of solace to their weary minds – whether through something beautiful, pleasant, emotional, contemplative, moving, poignant, restorative, or joyful, depending on the specific concert.
In a way, it could be said that the program of this third edition of the “festival in your pocket” offered a fittingly intimate sound and content – one that neither agitates nor invites celebration. And so, in unfortunate circumstances, everything “aligned” this way.
The concert program of the third “Pocket Globe” was held in the new building of the Student Cultural Center Novi Sad, located on Vladimir Perić Valter Street. The spacious ground-floor hall, featuring a large stage, excellent sound, and a bar providing easy and quick access to refreshments, created a pleasant, practical, and fitting environment for the concerts that unfolded over the festival’s three evenings. It seemed that everyone was satisfied – musicians, audience, and organizers alike.
The first to perform on November 12 was the French female trio Samaïa. The sincere, almost childlike cheerfulness of the three exceptionally skilled and experienced young artists – Éléonore Fourniau, Noémie Nael, and Luna Silva – established an instant connection with the audience, who clearly enjoyed the performance and rewarded it with enthusiastic applause. Their program featured stunning, harmonious vocal polyphony, beautifully and tastefully arranged instrumental parts (hurdy-gurdy, bendir, riq, bombo legüero, bass drum, daf, and mandola), and a captivating selection of diverse traditional songs from Europe and the Middle East.
It’s fair to say that Samaïa was a revelation for both the audience and us as organizers. Their time is yet to come, and in a way, we took a chance inviting them – uncertain if they would prove to be good or extraordinary. In the end, the latter turned out to be true.
Following the young French trio, the stage welcomed the oldest (48) and most renowned musician of this year’s festival edition (centered on women, exclusively Serbian premieres, and predominantly younger artists) – Ana Alcaide from Spain, a prominent figure on the contemporary Spanish music scene. Supported by her longtime collaborator and life partner, Bill Cooley (playing the oud, psaltery, bouzouki, bass pedal, and programming), Ana cast her signature spell with an ambient, ethereal, and transcendent atmosphere.
Her performance, angelically refined, was led by the beauty of her voice and the timeless sound of the Nordic nyckelharpa. She took us on a journey across the Mediterranean and the paths of the Sephardim.
It seemed Ana was slightly disheartened by the modest audience turnout, as an artist of her caliber is accustomed to larger crowds. However, there was little we could do about it. Such was the fate of “Pocket Globe” in the penultimate month of 2024.
The second evening, November 13, featured performances by two duos. First, Hiram Salsano & Marcello De Carolis delighted the audience with captivating and energetic interpretations of traditional music from southern Italy, particularly the regions of Campania and Basilicata. Everything was as one might expect from the temperament of this part of Europe: Hiram’s powerful vocals, passionate tambourine shaking, and rhythmic pulsations of the jaw harp created a perfect synergy with Marcello’s virtuosity on the chitarra battente. Loopers added extra depth to the atmosphere without compromising the raw authenticity of the old songs.
At one point, Marcello’s measured dancing with some of the audience members in a traditional circle dance added a warm sense of togetherness – something especially meaningful during those heavy November days.
After the Italians, the stage welcomed a performance that drew visitors not only interested in world music but also in experimental and avant-garde sound. Some attendees even traveled from Belgrade to Novi Sad specifically for this concert. The Polish duo Maniucha & Ksawery based their performance on the album “Oj borom, borom…”, which, even seven years after its release, continues to inspire and captivate. This duo’s artistry is so compelling that no one expects them to rush into releasing another album anytime soon.
The concert by Maniucha Bikont and Ksawery Wójciński seemed to resonate most profoundly with the somber mood in Serbia during those November days.
With a voice that is tender yet piercing and raw, Maniucha channeled the emotions of rural women from the Ukrainian part of Polesia (a border region spanning Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, where she has conducted extensive field research for years). Her performance vividly portrayed various forms of sorrow from the everyday lives of these women in the past. Yet, this sorrow was also a means of release, a way for rural singers to alleviate their anguish and restore their psychological well-being.
Double bassist Ksawery, as an interpreter and collaborator in this experimental-traditional exploration of Ukrainian heritage, added tones and harmonies of tenderness, suffering, emotional disjunction, searching, and the reestablishment of inner peace.
The third evening, November 14, began with a performance by Finnish artist Teija Niku, who, with her accordion in hand and on her lap, offered the audience around fifty pure “chill-out” minutes. She alternated between the alluring melancholy of Northern Europe and the passionate dynamism of the Balkans, crafting a natural and intimate sequence. Even the familiar melody of the popular song “Ajde, Jano” felt seamlessly integrated into her set. Despite Teija’s invitation for the audience to dance to this close-to-home theme (something we might have eagerly done in another context), everyone remained seated, savoring the beauty of each tone and melodic embellishment.
Teija drew the largest crowd of the festival, thanks in part to a significant group of students from Novi Sad’s “Isidor Bajić” Music School, brought by their accordion teacher, Marko Asurdžić. It was a wonderful example of encouraging young people to broaden their listening experiences outside of school and expand their horizons within their field of study.
The final act of “Pocket Globe” featured the increasingly acclaimed Serbian-Austrian artist Jelena Popržan, presenting one of her current projects, the Jelena Popržan Quartett. Over a decade had passed since her last performance in Novi Sad (as part of the duo Catch-Pop String-Strong), one of “her” cities. Born in Novi Sad, Jelena had an overwhelming desire to share all her inner passion, ideas, and creativity with the audience.
Her complete and heartfelt devotion to the music, the moment, the space, and the gathered community resulted in a compelling interpretation of material from the album she released with the Quartett in 2022.
While the instrumental pieces were as fascinating as the songs based on the poetry of Jewish-Polish-Austrian poet Tamar Radzyner, it was these very vocal-instrumental moments that emotionally moved the audience even more profoundly.
The accompanying events of the festival played a significant role in enriching the experience, starting with a workshop on Tuesday, November 12, in the early evening. This workshop, much like the previous year, marked the official opening of the festival. Last year, it was led by Iva Bittová, while this year, Maniucha Bikont took the reins. Once again, it was a resounding success!
Maniucha was exceptionally dedicated, working with curious and musically inclined children from the Children’s Opera Studio of the Serbian National Theatre on several Ukrainian songs. Along the way, she introduced them to the phenomena of traditional music and rural life. The choir’s conductor, Verica Pejić, observed with satisfaction, occasionally offering her active support.
Some of the children attended Maniucha & Ksawery’s concert the following evening, and one brave girl even joined them on stage to sing a song together at Maniucha’s invitation.
Another complementary event took place at the “Isidor Bajić” Music School on Wednesday, November 13, in collaboration with the “Eufonija” Association, which nurtures and promotes accordion art. Teija Niku delivered a presentation for the school’s accordion students and teachers, sharing her artistic journey and insights into the Finnish accordion scene.
She provided a special focus on a unique type of classical accordion characteristic of Finland, which differs slightly from models in other parts of Europe and the world.
These two events represented additional activities by the guest artists under the framework of the “Sounds of Europe” project. This initiative supported the visits of Maniucha, Ksawery, and Teija to the festival. Beyond Maniucha’s workshop and Teija’s presentation, which formally took place as part of “Pocket Globe”, two other activities aligned with the project but occurred outside the festival’s organization. The first was a concert by the trio WOŠ in Novi Sad at the Cultural Center of Vojvodina “Miloš Crnjanski” on November 11, where Ksawery Wojciński performed with local musicians Predrag Okiljević (tenor saxophone) and Aleksandar Škorić (drums). The second was Teija’s concert on November 12 at the Cultural Center “Mija Aleksić” in Gornji Milanovac, as part of the “traveling” festival “Creative Europe”.
The “Pocket Globe” festival is organized by the Ring Ring Association in collaboration with the Music Information Centre of Serbia, and this year also with the Students’ Cultural Center Novi Sad.
The third “Pocket Globe” received support from: “Sounds of Europe” (Creative Europe), the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Embassy of Spain in Belgrade, the Polish Institute in Belgrade, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the French Institute in Serbia, the Austrian Cultural Forum Belgrade, the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrade, and the magazine Etnoumlje.
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🔗 Pocket Globe 2024: A report in Serbian on the Remix Press portal

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It cannot be said that such a thing is essential, but it is nice and appealing for a music festival to unite the program of its edition around a specific theme. This is how “Todo Mundo” has, several times, created a “story” that flows through the concerts and other program contents. Experienced Todo Mundo crowd may recall the festival’s focuses on the African (2012), Balkan (2014), and Hungarian (2019) music scenes, as well as on women (2021) and the Roma, which served as the thematic thread of the latest, twelfth edition of the festival.
The program design was facilitated by the fact that our Ring Ring Association has been a partner in the European project “Sounds of Europe” since 2022, so this year we also turned to the portfolios of our partners from different European countries. We selected artists and groups and ultimately created a lineup consisting entirely of Roma music performers: Tcha Limberger, Júlia Kozáková, Romano Drom, and Terne Čhave. After that, we needed to add a fitting “local” concert, and the decision was simple: the Belgrade band Kal, which had never performed at “Todo Mundo” before.
And that’s not all when it comes to the Roma theme – a public discussion with Júlia Kozáková at the Musicology Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) was also focused on the Roma, just like the international conference “Roma People and Music: Freedom, Adaptation, Taking Over”…
EVERYTHING WE DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SLOVAK ROMA
The first event of this year’s festival took place in office 410 of The SASA Institute of Musicology. The public interview with Júlia Kozáková is a continuation of the series of artist conversations that the “Todo Mundo” festival has successfully developed with the idea of offering the ethnomusicological community (with an openness to a wider audience) the opportunity to get closer to a representative of a particular musical tradition or genre through direct contact.
Such conversations have previously been organized at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in always pleasant cooperation with the Department of Ethnomusicology, and in 2024, we decided to hold it at the Musicology Institute. The conversation with Júlia Kozáková, held on Friday, September 20, in the early afternoon, was led by ethnomusicologist Marija Dumnić Violotijević, Senior Research Associate at the Institute.
The attendees enjoyed a wealth of information and interesting facts both from Júlia Kozáková’s professional life, particularly regarding her love for the Roma heritage of her native Slovakia (Júlia herself is not Roma, but Slovak), as well as data on traditional Roma music and culture in Slovakia and surrounding countries.
The topic titled “Reinterpretation of Traditional Songs of Romani from Central Europe” turned out to be very inspiring for the audience, and as a result, the entire event lasted much longer than originally planned.
A STRONG AND GENTLE EVENING
That evening, we attended the first two concerts of the festival at the Jewish Cultural Center. First, the Belgrade band Kal filled the room with a powerful performance and intense energy, skillfully combining typical rock instruments such as electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums with sound sources characteristic of, among other things, the milieu of folk and Roma music: accordion and violin. The atmosphere was led by the frontman Dragan Ristić (vocals, guitar), always with a strong desire to encourage as many people as possible to dance.
And then – after socializing with cigarettes and beer in the lobby and outside the venue – a complete contrast to the Kal concert took place. The gathered audience was now enchanted by intimacy and warmth. Belgian musician Tcha Limberger, through his playing and voice, weaving threads of emotional tenderness and refined humor, led his Belgian-British-Hungarian-Romanian Kalotaszeg Trio, which also featured Toni Rudi (viola) and Vilmos Csikos (double bass), authentic representatives of the style. This is the sound of Transylvania and the Kalotaszeg region. But it is also about the wonderful, vivid storytelling of Tcha Limberger, through which the audience could gain an even deeper understanding of the music of this unique area.
MENTORING SESSIONS
The sunny Saturday, September 21, gathered us first in the middle of the day at the Hotel “Rex” Garden, where for the first time within the “Todo Mundo” festival, mentoring sessions were held. Our delegates – Martyna Van Nieuwland, (Netherlands/Poland), Ciro De Rosa (Italy), and Christian Pliefke (Germany), experienced professionals in the European world music scene – chatted over coffee and the gentle breeze with interested musicians about their plans, development, careers, and more. With the exception of Júlia Kozáková, the mentoring sessions were attended by local musicians from various genre backgrounds.
HOP, THEN HEAVY
The second evening at the Jewish Cultural Center was marked by two completely different concerts. Júlia Kozáková, an unknown name to the Belgrade audience, surprised them with the attractiveness of her presence and the lightness of her interpretation. Together with the outstanding, authentic sound of her accompanying Roma band Manuša, Júlia delighted the audience. Smiles, clapping, cheers, and those positively charged whistles followed every Roma song and instrumental improvisation on stage. The spirit of the Roma heritage from Central Europe and the vividness of that string tradition illuminated the audience, who, after the break, had to emotionally adjust to a different mood – the performance of Lenhart Tapes and Tijana Stanković.
Before this one non-Roma concert at the 12th “Todo Mundo” festival, we, as representatives of the World Music Association of Serbia, awarded the annual “Vojin Mališa Draškoci” Plaque with a statuette to Vladimir Lenhart for his dedicated artistic work and unique achievements in blending diverse forms of folk and cultural heritage with modern sound tools (walkmans, audio cassettes) and expressions.
Next came the recognizable noise of Lenhart Tapes, woven from beauty, power, suggestiveness, excitement, anger, and many other faces of sound. The “facilitator” of Lenhart’s artistic message – his long-time collaborator, vocalist and violinist Tijana Stanković – skillfully and magically commanded her instrumental and vocal vocabulary.
Their joint performance was predictably convincing, and a new, yet unreleased track “threatens” to become a hit, within the framework of this “industrial sound”, of course.
VIEWS OF THE ROMA
The final day of the 12th festival, Sunday, September 22, featured, as part of the program, the international conference, the fourth organized by the Ring Ring Association within the “Todo Mundo” festival. The theme “Roma People and Music: Freedom, Adaptation, Taking Over” gathered, during two sessions, nine speakers – highly experienced and distinguished individuals and professionals, including musicians, managers, publishers, organizers, ethnologists, ethnomusicologists, and more. Among the participants were representatives of various nations, including Roma.
The speakers came from nine European countries, each with their own specific knowledge and experience. The perspectives were diverse, and each one prompted questions from the audience.
The conference, held at the Jewish Cultural Center, featured the following participants: Ciro De Rosa (Italy), Maša Vukanović (Serbia), Christian Pliefke (Germany), Dragan Ristić (Serbia), Martyna Van Nieuwland (Netherlands/Poland), Tcha Limberger (Belgium), Júlia Kozáková (Slovakia), Dušan Sviba (Czech Republic), Marija Dumnić Vilotijević (Serbia), Anti Kovács (Hungary), and Marija Vitas (moderator/Serbia).
EXPLOSION OF RHYTHM AND JOY
The very end of the festival couldn’t have been more energetic! The concerts held at the Jewish Cultural Center, though vastly different, sparked a similar atmosphere and a lively mood in the audience. And they had one more thing in common: the Roma music of Central Europe, first Hungarian, and then Czech.
Romano Drom is a big name on the Hungarian music scene, one that is not unknown to the Serbian concert audience, although it was certainly necessary to once again “explain” their exceptional talent. However, everything unfolded seamlessly. The sparkling playing and lively voices of the musicians on stage conveyed the spirit of the Vlach Roma heritage from Hungary, with its irresistible mobility of vibrant acoustic music and the striking “crackling” of voices. The joy and excitement of the audience were evident.
Next, with a less traditional and more rock-oriented approach, the Czech band Terne Čhave, also a big name on their country’s scene, got the audience on their feet with even more energy. The reactions were fantastic, despite it being their debut in Serbia, although the leaders of the lively mood in audience came from the Czech Center Belgrade and their friends – Czechs and lovers of Czech culture.
The highlight of the evening and the entire festival was the joint performance of several songs, during which members of Romano Drom joined the Terne Čhave band on stage. An explosion of rhythm and joy!
The “Todo Mundo” festival is organized by the Ring Ring Association in collaboration with the Music Information Centre of Serbia.
The twelfth “Todo Mundo” festival was supported by: “Sounds of Europe” (Creative Europe), the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Collegium Hungaricum Belgrade, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Czech Center in Belgrade, EFFEA/World Music Festival Bratislava, European Folk Network/European Folk Day, the World Music Association of Serbia, the Jewish Cultural Center “Oneg Shabbat”, and the magazine “Etnoumlje”.
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🔗 Todo Mundo: Website ǀ YouTube ǀ Facebook ǀ Instagram
🔗 Todo Mundo 2024: Report in the magazine Etnoumlje (in Serbian)

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The European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA) is an European Festivals Association’s initiative that aims to support young artists in developing their international careers by providing performance opportunities at festivals. Through this initiative, the Fund also promotes international inter-festival collaboration.
The first open call of the EFFEA Fund was open in 2022. At that time, collaboration between three European festivals of new music was already agreed upon to support the artistic project/concept/ensemble IRK Performing Reflection by the young Croatian artist Ivar Roban Križić (born in Zagreb in 1990).
Thanks to the received support, Ivar Roban Križić and his ensemble (structured differently depending on the occasion) performed a series of three concerts. They first performed on April 17, 2023, at the Zagreb Music Biennale, then on May 18 at the 27th Ring Ring Festival in Belgrade, and finally at the 180° – Laboratory for Innovative Art Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, on July 24.
In Belgrade, IRK Performing Reflection performed as a quartet of musicians from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Austria: Ivar Roban Križić (double bass), Nikola Vuković (trumpet), Bojan Krhlanko (drums, percussion, electronics), and Thomas Grill (electronics).

Ivan Roban Križić / IRK Performing Reflection, Belgrade, Ring Ring Festival, 2023 (photo: Duško Vukić)
