Artists

All eyes on our Balkan Music Export artists! True, unadulterated talent, the untapped potential of the Balkans, ready for international stages – listen to these amazing bands and artists that were selected for the MOST Music programme! Let them show you that Balkan music is more than tricky odd signatures and heavy brass sounds – Balkan music is diverse and creative, refreshingly earnest, and most of all – surprising!

Round 3

Alice in WonderBand

Serbia

Alice in WonderBand is a duo combining music from the Balkans with body music and body percussion. Their performance is vibrating and rhythmic, powerful and energetic, crossroads of music, dance, and stage movement – a deep, primordial experience that takes the audience on a journey through Balkans as well as to the depths of the being.

North Macedonia

Baklava is a world music band from Skopje with 4 albums recorded and published up to date, and the 5th album coming by the end of 2022. They sing in various languages, play, travel, explore strange new worlds, and boldly go where no sweet pastry has gone before.

Croatia

Balkalar is an ethno band from Zagreb, Croatia with a simple philosophy: freedom, love, rakija, dance, song, and celebration of life. Playing a mix of music from all over the Balkans in their own unique and euphoric arrangements, they are sure to get you on your feet and dancing.

Kosovo*

Besart Zhuja plays music which is fully interdependent with other Western Balkan nations. Combining different rhythms and instruments and experimenting with new harmonies provides new branches of genres and adds value to the current music styles on the market.

Bulgaria, Finland

DANTCHEV:DOMAIN is a quintet of experimental world fusion, where strong cinematic melodies, tight rhythmical webs meet universal stories. Bulgarian musical heritage and elements of blues and other afro-american roots music are combined in unique and original way in Finnish–Bulgarian Anna Dantchev's compositions. Known also as a ”Bulgarian Voice from Finland” she brings out the Bulgarian diaspora in Finland to the wider world music scene.

Croatia

Dunjaluk gets rid of the layers of sevdah that have become the rules of the genre in the 20th century. To the melancholy of sevdah, Dunjaluk adds the intensity of rock and the intricacy of jazz. It's sevdah for those who think they don't like sevdah.

Romania

Koszika is rooted in Hungarian, Romanian, and Gypsy music. Koszika and Csabaki performing as a duo or as an extended 7-piece band will tell the musical tales of their multicultural homeland. Their songs take us on joyrides, wild and untamed – or on a deep rooted inner journey. They incorporate old folk melodies and rhymes in their modern, electrically eclectic sound, showing how these tunes would sound and feel like in the 21st century.

Croatia

PJEV is a female a cappella quintet from Zagreb. They cherish traditional vocal music from Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. PJEV gathers singers of different nationalities with the intention to overcome artificial boundaries. Fascinated with peasant traditional singing, they try to convey the spirit of this powerful and rich culture.

Albania, Kosovo*, North Macedonia

The first two multimedia projects of the Rona Nishliu, “Me motive tonat” and “Mindil”, both represent a long cycle of research and transformation that she applied to the classics of Albanian music – ancient songs dating back to the late 14th century. What started as her personal search has now matured into a show that transcends traditional content. This fusion of jazz and ethno offers a unique and refreshing blend of not only Albanian music but of also various Balkan traditions, such as Roma, Greek, and more.

North Macedonia

Zarina plays both Macedonian and global traditional music. She's collaborated with artists around the world and worked on film projects as well. She took part in the 2020 ”Echo” mountain festival with her own video project and song, shot the video on the peak Ljuboten, in support of declaring Shar Mountain a national park. Her debut album, EHO features 11 traditional songs from different regions, featuring 4 different languages and many collaborations.

Agona Shporta

KOSOVO*

Between the Balkans and Middle East, American songbooks and India, Agona's music blends a rich and diverse mixture of sounds and cultures through an original voice and interpretation. Each of the pieces are journeys of their own, coming together in a harmonious and enchanting unity.

Romania

The acoustic taraf of Corina Sîrghi evokes the smoky parlours of interwar Bucharest and the extravagant mahala block parties of the 1990s with a sound that will tame even the most troubled of hearts.

Croatia

Dina e Mel is a duo who researches and performs minority music, creating new music out of the small fragments that survived long and turbulent history of the Balkans. The result is an album that erases the current borders of the Eastern Balkans and melts together elements of music in unexpected ways.

Bulgaria

E.U.E.R.P.I. is the guitar drone ambient project of Mirian Kolev, who lives and composes in the Balkan Mountains, in Bulgaria. His music is minimalistic, meditative and discreetly psychedelic.

Bulgaria

The Flying Nomads duo creates fusion music, combining traditional ethno and modern styles. Their belief is that if a song is made by the soul, it is possible to reach the soul of the listener, and this is incorporated in their work.

Romania

Showcasing the versatility of the Balkans, GRAIU plays a fusion of Vlach and Afro-American traditional music. GRAIU is the Romanian word for vernacular language and music – the most local dialect that one is born and grows up with.

North Macedonia

This North Macedonian world and neofolk band from Skopje draws a parallel between Eastern and Western culture, with the accent of the traditional Macedonian music.

Serbia

Manipulated field recordings, spoken word and sound propaganda, ethno music and other forms of cassette tape art and rhythmic loops, with performances by master folk vocalists such as Svetlana Spajić, Tijana Stanković and Mirjana Raić – this is Lenhart Tapes.

Albania

Albanian folk music with a touch of jazz harmonies and a little bit of fragrance from the Parisian breeze of elegance – this is Linda Rukaj, vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist.

North Macedonia

Acoustic dark folk from North Macedonia – Perija creates one big Balkan fusion of languages, dialects and music influences, with modern and historical themes.

Albania

The music of the Albanian duo is an electronic reinterpretation of the traditional music of their hometown - Shkoder. Shkodra Elektronike is based in Italy.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Vladimir, named after Sephardic singer Vladimir Mićković, is a five-member ensemble. Their musical journey from Andalusia to the Balkans. They perform songs in Ladino, sung by generations from Dubrovnik, through Sarajevo, to Thessaloniki.

Almir Meskovic & Daniel Lazar Duo

Bosnia & Serbia

Norwegian folk mixes well with Balkan klezmer, and much else – at least it does in this unique duo of violin and accordion, of Almir Meskovic and Daniel Lazar.

Romania

What happens when you mix low-fi electronica with psychedelic folk? Throw in a couple of grandpa’s sweaters for style and you get Balkan Taksim.

Bosnia

Sevdah, this heartbreakingly beautiful and complex Balkan genre is reborn in jazz, pop, and contemporary classical in Divanhana’s tasteful performances.

Kosovo*

Gipsy Groove fuses ethnicities, cultures, they radiate energy and charisma – hard to forget, impossible not to dance to.

Bosnia

Cellist extraordinaire Lakiko is an exciting and experimental artist going against all Balkan stereotypes while still being unapologetically local and authentic.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

A fusion of flamenco and sufi music, Nairuz unites corners and cultures of the world geographically far from each other with elegance and poise.

Serbia

Built from the complicated history of ex-Yugoslavia, Naked plays happy music about sorrow – music with unwavering honesty, with a nakedness of both heart and soul.

Bulgaria

“Ethnobass” performed in an extraordinary manner – in front of Space Invaders, for example – is the essense of the Bulgarian Oratnitza.

Serbia

Rođenice takes a feminine dive into the freedom of identity in modern times – a deeply coded message and their virtuous performance distinguish them from just-another-traditional-music albums.

Serbia

Shira u’tfila means song and prayer – they are a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional ensemble that draws its inspiration from the diversity and richness of Judeo-Spanish, Ottoman-Turkish, Arabic and Balkan musical traditions.

Pillars

Balkan music export

for musicians

FESTIVAL AND CLUB EXCHANGE

for festival organisers and music venues

Management training

for emerging professionals

Urban project hub

for creative minds

Artists

Round 3

Alice in WonderBand

Serbia

Baklava

North Macedonia

Balkalar

Croatia

Besart Zhuja

Kosovo*

DANTCHEV:DOMAIN

Bulgaria, Finland

Dunjaluk

Croatia

Koszika

Romania

PJEV

Croatia

Rona Nishliu Quartet

Albania, Kosovo*, North Macedonia

The Zarina Prvasevda Ensemble

North Macedonia

Round 2

Agona Shporta

KOSOVO*

Corina Sîrghi și Taraful Jean Americanu

Romania

Dina e Mel

Croatia

E.U.E.R.P.I.

Bulgaria

Flying Nomads

Bulgaria

GRAIU

Romania

Kalata

North Macedonia

Lenhart Tapes

Serbia

Linda Rukaj

Albania

Perija

North Macedonia

Shkodra Elektronike

Albania

VLADIMIR

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Round 1

Almir Meskovic & Daniel Lazar Duo

Bosnia & Serbia

Balkan Taksim

Romania

Divanhana

Bosnia

Gipsy Groove

Kosovo*

Lakiko

Bosnia

NAiRUZ

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Naked

Serbia

Oratnitza

Bulgaria

Rođenice

Serbia

Shira u’tfila

Serbia

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