[30/06/2023 | 21:00] Belgrade, Serbia: SERBIAN LOVE SONGS and other music

@ BAM Balkanska Akademija za Muziku

A new Serbian-German zeitkratzer cooperation! SERBAIN WAR SONGS (https://zeitkratzer.bandcamp.com/album/serbian-war-songs) was developed, performed and recorded in Belgrade and at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, and was subsequently toured internationally. A new project is arising now: SERBIAN LOVE SONGS.

Serbian singer Dragana Tomić, who already sang in the first project, and the internationally acclaimed trumpeter Nenad Marković from Novi Sad, who has already performed with zeitkratzer (Toulouse 2022), will be part of the group. Hayden Chisholm, saxophonist of zeitkratzer who lives in Belgrade, and Reinhold Friedl, zeitkratzer founder and leader, who also initiated the SERBIAN WAR SONGS (– download code on request). And acclaimed trombonist Hilary Jefferey is joining!

As in the first project, LOVE SONGS will be based on research (Dragana Tomić) on traditional Serbian songs, and confronted and brought together with advanced, contemporary musical techniques. The references are surprising but quickly become obvious and clear: the microtonal nature of traditional Serbian vocal art versus the microtonal enrichments in New Music, to which zeitkratzer has dedicated several publications (James Tenney, Alvin Lucier etc.), rhythmically intricate structures and patterns.

A new meeting of traditional music with advanced sound worlds, which keep their own identity and enrich each other: LOVE always means to get lost in a beautiful sense: let’s get lost in this music and discover new sounds and music! Subsequently, the experiences and musical elaborations of this experimental research setting of the quintet shall lead to a follow-up project with the entire zeitkratzer ensemble. Highliy emotional NEW MUSIC!