The October just swept through our ears like sweetest Balkan body music: we played in Slovakia, Hungary, Germany and Finland. In November, the events we again don’t lack, but at least we stay more or less in one place, Ebenboeckhaus in Munich and around it!
We started the work on combining body music and juggling with Andreas Schantz. There are so many parallels: in the visual rhythm, with the sounds that you make catching the balls that are just so natural to combine with body percussion. We’re learning some basic juggling techniques from the master and are giving some of our own in return.
The Open studio where we’ll present the work-in-progress is on 27th of November at 7 PM, so, quite quickly. Welcome to Ebenböckhaus, our beautiful residency place in Pasing! The second chance to meet us is on 13th of December from 2 PM to 7 PM in the Open studio event of Villa Waldberta. We are in Munich with the support of Artist in Residence Munich program of the City’s Department for Arts and Culture.
Video from the showcase at Folkest last year
11/14 Kulturhof Langenzenn, concert, Langenzenn
11/15 Mehr Kultur e. V., concert, Munich
11/21 Weiherhaustheater, concert with Bavarian Immigrants, Ortenburg
11/22 Weiherhaustheater, workshop, Ortenburg
11/27 Open studio Ebenböckhaus, presentation of the residency with Andreas Schantz, Munich
11/28 Freies Musikzentrum, concert, Munich
11/29 Freies Musikzentrum, workshop, Munich
12/05 Zirkel fur kulturelle Bildung e.V. workshop for artists and social workers, Munich
12/13 Open studio Villa Waldberta, presentation of the residency with Andreas Schantz, Munich
Next concert with Bavarian Immigrants on November 21st
We enjoyed sharing the stage with our long time friends and colleagues, Bavarian Immigrants in Montessori school in Eberharting on October 17th. Both groups showcased their songs from old and new albums. We performed some music together, in a piece with body music and in a short free improvization. We admire their funny lyrics and perfect blend of music, theater and interaction with the audience.
Next performance with Bavarian Immigrants is on November 21st at Weiherhaus Theater. It is a beautiful small theater with nice acoustics next to a lake, home of the theater group Maskara Theater.
Next day you have a chance to come to our workshop. Find all information on the organizer’s website.
Photos: Linea Knoll
Recording in Munich for the upcoming Balkan body music album
We are preparing Što mi e milo em drago, a beautiful Macedonian song, to record with Kathryn Doehner, Christoph Schoenbeck and Andreas Schantz. It describes the perfect moment: when you are just in the right time at the right place.
The second song we’ll record with De Bavarian Immigrants, Denise Weise, Heribert Haider and Stefan Knoll, is Tmina (The Darkness). Heribert translated the lyrics to German and we are looking forward to some polyphonic singing! You can take a look at the process in one of our rehearsals.
Workshops and concerts in November
Hungry for more music? Join us on November 14th in Kulturhof Langenzenn in Langenzenn or one day after, November 15th in Munich (Grafing) at Skiffle Studio / Mehr Kultur e. V. The show in Langenzenn is organized with the support of our label, CPL Music. For the later show the space is very small, so don’t wait too long to get your seats.
If you miss these shows, or prefer the gigs in the centre of Munich, you can come to Freies Musikzentrum on November 28th.
We have two different workshops to offer: on November 29th in Freies Musikzentrum we offer a body music workshop with focus on odd rhythms and songs from the Balkans.
On December 5th in the organization of Zirkel fur kulturelle Bildung e.V. we will teach a workshop for social workers and artists, focused on the body music community practice.
Balkan body music at WOMEX 25
You can see how much fun we had with recording a song for Vilma Talvitie‘s new album. The song Lulle speaks about misunderstandings and predjudices. It was very funny how Vilma and Ana couldn’t really understand each other while comminucating through messages about the music ideas! You can see they alligned when they met. Here you can remember the moment when we recorded the first song of the second Balkan body music album Niška banja with Vilma in Serbia one year ago.
At WOMEX we’ve met some old friends and made new ones. A concert we were really emazed with was of the Handover, an amazing international trio that uses structured improvization to bring the melodies and themes from one performer to the other. This way of making music seems so familiar, as it was something we used while playing home sessions many years ago in our small forest studio.
We are planning concerts next years in the Baltic and Nordic contries, as well as the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. We had fruitful encounters with international delegates. We were part of the delegates representing Serbia organized by our colleagues from World Music Association Serbia.
Our first concert in Tampere was exciting! Together with Vilma Talvitie we performed new and old songs, enjoyed blending the Northern ice fairy vibe with fiery Balkan rhythm and energy. Some of the feedback we got from the audience is that we just emit pure love! As we feel the world needs it, we hope to do so. And you can help us by joining our concerts and workshops and spreading the joy.
