So, how did that female “voice” sound at the concluded “Pocket Globe 2024” festival?

So, how did that female “voice” sound at the concluded “Pocket Globe 2024” festival?

by | 25.11.2024.

The third “Pocket Globe” festival took place in Novi Sad from November 12 to 14, 2024, across several venues. With a program that included six concerts, a workshop, and a presentation, the spotlight was firmly placed on female artists.

. . .

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:  Website   ǀ   YouTube   ǀ   Facebook   ǀ   Instagram

🔗  Pocket Globe 2024:  A report in Serbian on the Remix Press portal

 

The Colorfulness of Roma Culture: “Todo Mundo 2024” has concluded

The Colorfulness of Roma Culture: “Todo Mundo 2024” has concluded

by | 24.09.2024.

The twelfth “Todo Mundo” festival took place in Belgrade from September 20 to 22, 2024, at several locations. The program was dedicated to the Roma people and music, featuring six concerts, a public interview, mentoring sessions, an award ceremony, and an international conference.

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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)

 

EFFEA

EFFEA

by | 01.05.2023.

The Ring Ring Association was a partner in a collaborative project in 2023, which, through the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA), involved a series of performances by Ivar Roban Križić and his ensemble. The second concert in the series took place at the 27th Ring Ring Festival, held at the Jewish Cultural Center in Belgrade on May 18, 2023.

. . .

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).

ivar roban križić ring ring

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

 

A new age has begun: On the success of the 1st “Pocket Globe” Festival

A new age has begun: On the success of the 1st “Pocket Globe” Festival

by | 15.11.2022.

The first world music festival Pocket Globe was held in Novi Sad, from November 10 to 13, 2022. The program included six concerts, three lectures and one workshop-session. Pocket Globe was part of the program arch Other? Europe of the Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture project.

. . .

Are we finally entering a new era? The one in which the local audience (and the media) finally became aware of the existence of the world music genre and, even more, of its uniqueness and interestingness that should always be experienced. And in which the hype doesn’t rise only when Mariza comes.

We, from the Ring Ring Association, which deals with several festivals, already noticed signs of that new era at the end of September, when the tenth Todo Mundo – the world music festival, which is often carried out with serious efforts – started selling tickets and festival passes even a month in advance, when the festival then attracted not only our passionate followers, but also some completely new faces and, most importantly, gathered a lot of young people, which we have been dreaming about for years.

And, while this year’s Todo Mundo was still a guess, the first edition of the Novi Sad world music festival Pocket Globe gave us full confirmation.

All three concert evenings were very well attended, with the dominance of the younger audience, and the three lectures were also well attended, not only in terms of the number of people in the hall, but also in terms of their activity, curiosity and inquisitiveness.

The media has also shown broad-mindedness towards world music and us, as the organizers. Various and numerous media – radio, TV, printed newspapers, internet – gave space to announcements of the festival program, as well as interviews with artists (the latter refers to Etnoumlje, Nedeljnik, Kulturni Dodatak u Politiki, Danas, VisitNoviSad and NsHronika). In all of this, we had great logistical support from the team gathered around the “Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture” project, especially in the field of communications and marketing. Because, let’s not forget, Pocket Globe was part of the program arc “Other? Europe” of the Novi Sad ECC 2022 project!

Let’s add that Pocket Globe also had its own after-story in the media, also important, but unfortunately these days, reports, reviews, reviews are increasingly rare. Nikola Glavinić spoke about the entire festival for Radio Beograd 2 and wrote for Etnoumlje magazine, while Ivana Jovanović reported on each evening separately for the Remix Press portal.

Media support is preceded by the key one – financial. Apart from the Foundation 2022, which was our main support, the festival also received help from the City of Novi Sad, then through the European project Sounds of Europe (whose partner is the Ring Ring Association), as well as the French Institute in Serbia (partly for the performance of Bab L’ Bluz). In the entire implementation of the festival, we were supported in our own way by a circle of wonderful volunteers, whose diverse help we could always count on.

Who are we, in fact, in the case of the Pocket Globe festival? That basic festival organizational cell consisted of three elements, one from Novi Sad and two from Belgrade: Vojislav Malešev, Bojan Đorđević and Marija Vitas. We functioned as one and created a solid base for future activities full of will and enthusiasm, in which we will look forward to possible team expansions. It is likely that the good response of the audience was also influenced by Voja’s skilful management of the series of concerts of the same name, starting in the fall of 2019, of which the Pocket Globe festival is a kind of natural continuation.

The most important thing for the festival organizer is the music itself, which – at least it should always be – we love, follow, know and are passionate about. Our great fulfillment of positive emotions during the festival and after the end of it, was stimulated first of all by fantastic concerts, some of which in the same evening made a crazy good chemistry, which made the organizers smile with satisfaction and a little pride.

Such was the second evening, held on November 11 at the Youth Theatre. It’s true that the Cypriot trio Monsieur Doumani blew up on their own, just as the Moroccan-French quartet Bab L’ Bluz blew away in their own way (there is still an informal, futile vote about which band was better), but above all that, they turned out to be a fantastic series!

Both bands boast a powerful sound, energy and rock psychedelia, which at Pocket Globe, in truth, did not have an adequate partner in the seating area of the Theater. Nevertheless, the audience was so excited that it sent strong impulses towards the stage equal to those of the visitors standing, dancing and jumping.

And everything started somewhat solemnly, because that is the space of the Novi Sad Synagogue. Before that evening ritual, on November 10, the threat of rain receded, which made people ready in advance to spend the evening outside the house after a pleasant, sunny, cold autumn day. Such weather conditions will, to our joy, accompany the entire festival. Because the second most important thing for the festival organizer (in Serbia) is the weather… Our people don’t like rain, nor wind, nor…

Damir Imamović first shined in the Synagogue with his trio Singer of Tales. Spontaneous, with an expressive voice, with a well-chosen repertoire, Damir captured the imagination with his interpretation of eternally popular sevdalinka songs and some of his original pearls, without a shred of pathos. He is a man of this millennium, with a conscious, mature and authentic view of tradition. The concert of Damir, Derya Tirkan and Žiga Golob was followed up beautifully by Boris Kovač with his New Ritual Ensemble and colorful arrangements of compositions from various phases of Kovač, very attractive to listen to.

Even though Boris Kovač’s slightly smaller ensemble performed only two months earlier as part of the NS EPK program, the Novi Sad audience is obviously always eager to hear this unique artist live.

The third concert evening, like the second, took place in the Youth Theater, attracting the largest number of people coming from other cities, especially Belgrade, who were also present at the previous evenings, as well as at the lectures. It only shows that the enthusiastic audience does not give up in the face of the greater number of kilometers that need to be covered to reach the point of musical boiling. And not everyone came from Belgrade by car!

The evening was opened by the local band Shira utfila, which has now fully matured in a refreshed line-up, to which singer Branislava Podrumac and pianist/keyboardist Aleksandar Jovanović Šljuka contributed. Very gradually they made an emotional, dynamic and rhythmic gradation, in order to completely spoil the audience with an increasingly moving and passionate interpretation of Sephardic love songs.

The organizing team was proud of its July decision that Shira utfila was chosen to perform at the Pocket Globe festival, after the “Serbian Globe” competition, which we opened for local artists in May.

The mood was brought to a boil. We were almost nervously awaiting the performance of Kayhan Kalhor and Erdal Erzincan. And then we got something that exceeded expectations. It was an hour and a half continuous flow, musical invention, liturgy, ritual…

Constantly in motion between contemplation and passion, melancholy and fervor, quiet sobs and voluminous roars – Kayhan’s kamanche and Erdal’s baglama breathed as one organism, and that perhaps they never looked at each other.

A wonderful interweaving of traditions and innovations, and a magical combination of Iran and Turkey, in which the very traditions of these countries become One…

What an end, and it wasn’t the end! Because the real finale of the Pocket Globe festival happened the next day, at the Svilara Cultural Station, at Kayhan’s lecture on the music of Iran. It was the third and last lecture of the festival, which was preceded by similar events in the Small Hall of the Youth Theater. Yousra Mansour and Brice Bottin, members of the band Bab L’ Bluz, spoke (11.11) about the music of the Gnava ethnic group and the role of women in the music of Morocco, while Damir Imamović (12.11) talked about the saz and the place of this instrument in the cultural heritage of Sarajevo and BiH.

In addition, the Bab L’ Bluz band had another, special activity, when (11.11) they took Novi Sad musicians through the rhythmic paths of their workshop-session at the Petrovaradin fortress.

When it was all over, and when we, tired and satisfied started to return home – Voja on the bike, and Marija and Bojan in the car – our heads were buzzing with delight, praise and gratitude, which the audience gave us those days. Because of them, we will continue to spin the pocket globe in our hands. Ideas are piling up on paper, and we have already turned on the oven “to 1”. The program of the second Pocket Globe festival is being slowly thought through.

 

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