Yeah!…but Balkan

7/8 violins (and a bass)

Mad Kats

My long-time friend, the talented guitarist and singer Aleksander Kusmić and I played in this free-form improvising duo…We did a lot of busking and regularly played bar gigs together, as well as going on street tours (the word vacation comes to mind, but is dismissed quickly). We released our first CD, The Bridge, in 2012,  The duo as such makes occasional appearances on the street, but we’ve moved our energies on to Wild Strings Trio.

Faronika

When Istrian singer Nika Solce contacted me in early 2014 with a “let’s make a band” line, little did I know how much I would get excited about the result. Playing with guitarist Tilen Stepišnik opened up new harmonic and textural worlds, and both him and percussionist Žiga Šercer pushed me to explore many new rhythmic possibilities. The sound of the band, centering on reworked Balkan and Istrian traditional songs but including quite a few original pieces, sung in Nika’s beautiful and delicate voice, is both subtle and strong. As bands do, this one has lapsed.

Zamee

An extension of Faronika brought us together with the living encyclopedia of folk tunes, accordionist Matija Solce, a master of the on-the-fly arrangement and fabulous musician, as well as wonderfully gifted Indian artists Sabiha Khan (vocals) and Vinayak Netke (tabla), to form an independant band. A month of hard work in April of 2014 culminated in a series of acclaimed concerts and a set of recordings that was released as our first album. The band went the way of Faronika, and after two tours in Slovenia and one in India, we called it quits, though we still collaborate on punctual projects when we get the chance!