Body music picks up the pace in November! You may not see us on stage, but we are hard at work on two new albums: one of Alice in WonderBand, which will feature many collaborations with artists we admire. We will record the second one this month in Poland, after returning from Athens, where we are going to the International Body Music Festival, the biggest festival of body musicians in the world. We are traveling to Poland to work with Juila Lewandowska and Łukasz Malok, our collaborators and kindred spirits on a new project called Slavyk. Do you remember the song Ko peva zlo ne misli? The translation of this Serbian proverb is Who sings means no harm. We can’t wait to think and create good through music and movement.
We recorded the first song for the new album of Alice in WonderBand with the Finnish artist Vilma Talvitie. After an intensive two-day residency in our forest home, on the third day we entered the MrV production studio in Novi Sad, where we collaborate with Goran Vujičin.
Ana and Marko proposed an arrangement for another Balkan hit song, which already has a million covers, Niška banja. That’s why we had to create something completely different. We hope we preserved the sexy female energy of Olivera Katarina, famous Yugoslav singer from the 20th century and bring surprises like beat boxing. The piano blended beautifully with the body percussion and singing, and Vilma contributed to the arrangement with her ideas and masterful instrumental and vocal performance. The work was so tiring, that some had to rest in the studio 😉
Guests who will join us are Slovak-Czech group Milanosz, colleagues from Transylvania from the MOST Music program Koszorus Krisztina and Szász Csaba (Koszika), our dear friend Elena Hristova (Baklava) from Skopje and others.
Photos: Alisa Dinjaški
At the beginning of October, we were in Korea at the Gwangju Busking Worldcup festival. After that, we recorded a song for children, Ljudi, ne bacajte smeće (People, don’t litter), in collaboration with the choirs Moderato and ZbrKu from Croatia. The collaboration with Katarina Kalajžić Golac and Mladen Ergić started last year, when they came as participants to our New Balkan Rhythm festival. Since then we have been hanging out and collaborating, and how better than creating music for children together? We re-arranged our TikTok hit of 2 million views for a children’s choir, guitar and piano, with body percussion, of course. At the beginning of October, we recorded the song at the Depth studio in Zagreb, and at the end, we also recorded a music video in collaboration with Matej Čehovski. Premiere in a few weeks!
We held a body music seminar in Zagreb for educators, teachers and professors. In 5 hours, a group of 25 participants went through the basics of body music, as well as examples for children from preschool age to propositions for working with youth. See you again next spring!
We’ll teach again in Poland in Krakow at the beautiful space of Kontakt. Przestrzeń Ruchu i Tańca on November 23 and 24, a 10 hours New Balkan Rhythm workshop. Apply to participate here! We’ll learn to combine singing and body percussion. Starting from the basics, you will understand how to play different odd beats (7/8, 9/8, 11/8 etc.), different ways to make body percussion arrangements for them, you will learn songs from Balkans with different melody lines and connect it all into a body music arrangement you can perform right away.
Check out the atmosphere from the recording of Niška banja.
And let’s remind ourselves of Radio Proglas sessions, recorded in Brno this year, during the Maraton hudby festival.
After the body music workshop in Belgrade in October, we will take a short break. We will spend most of November abroad, at the International Body Music Festival in Athens, and then in Poland, recording with Slavyk.
We will teach another workshop and the last concert this year at the beginning of December at the Specto elementary school in Poznań, Poland, in collaboration with the teacher Anna Trąbała.
Balkan body music October
We participated in the music marathon of the All Around This World program. At the invitation of Philadelphia music educator and performer Jay Sand, we brought Balkan music to this international program in which dozens of musicians from all over the world participated. Jay is raising funds for the Global Orchestra. The next action is the Singing Auction, where you will be able to donate funds and buy an online concert or workshop. The program takes place in December. We decided to do both and the workshop and concert are intended for the whole family: a nice preparation for the New Year holidays. More news soon.
We performed an interactive musical performance, Centipede Rhymes, at the National Theater in Sombor.