A Personal Story About “Ring Ring”

Here’s Skoča’s story about the Ring Ring festival and the performance of the Japanese quintet ONJQ, which closed the 29th edition of the festival at Karmakoma Club, on May 25, 2025. The text was originally posted on Skoča’s Facebook profile.

. . .

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.

. . .

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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