Muhamed Eljsani (aka Muha Blackstazy), born and raised in Novi Sad, Serbia in predominantly Roma neighbourhood, earns for living working as a construction worker, without permanent employment. For more than ten years, Muha writes lyrics that are very much connected with everyday life of Roma community, and turns them into hip-hop style songs.

He made his first recordings in 2003 with the song Crni smo mi/We are Black, which attracted lots of attention, due to its messages to fight against racial and ethnic discrimination. He cooperated in documentary film about Roma community in Novi Sad, The Last Hole on Flute, made by video artists team from the Netherlands, and the song Mi smo braca Romi/We are Roma Brothers was recorded in 2004. In 2005, he took part in an international workshop Petrovaradin Tribe supported by the European Cultural Foundation and made a song Pustite unutra ove divne ljude/Let Inside These Beautiful People which soon became an official hymn of famous EXIT festival in Novi sad and enable him to perform on the EXIT as well. In 2006 he took part in 3 months long film workshop, a part of an international art project Kuba: Journey Against the Current and Čokoladni reper/Chocolate Rapper was recorded. In 2007 supported by Open Society Institute he made his first professional studio recordings: the album Crni smo mi/We are Black was released and promoted within EXIT Festival, followed by series of live acts. Recently, he participated in 2 art projects: international video workshop Divided God and international symposium Dictionary of War, both held in Novi Sad, co-produced by Centre for New Media Kuda.org.

DJ duo Brat&Sestra
photo by: Nada Žgank (Memento)

Reverie Falls On All is an experimental music project by Barkın Engin and Burak Tamer, musicians who are collaborating also with one of the most successful alternative bands in Turkey – Replikas. The sound processing improvisations in search for the direction of the collaboration evolved into various textures containing acoustic instruments with the real acoustic qualities of the building, where the sessions took place. Finally the music shaped into a structure that blend the duo’s guitar playing aesthetic with their influences on glitch, noise, 20th century music and classical composition.

Their debut album Clouds In Our Room has been released in 2006 and since then live performances are the focus of the Reverie Falls on All. The musical ideas interfere with sound wise coincidences throughout the composing process. Digital errors, ambient noises, leakage from other spaces become elements of the compositions, each introducing an actual code of framed time. Then these audible codes of the moments connect with the reflections of daily life and transform into musical structures. In 2007, the band participated as collaborative artist in the Istanbulmap project and supported the project with the piece İMÇ. The latest release of the band, the live album Passed Ones, has been released in 2009. All recordings are available for free download at the discography section: www.reveriefallsonall.com.

Replikas is doubtlessly one of the most acclaimed and popular alternative bands in Istanbul and Turkey. Their avant-rock, a combination of Anatolian music, post-punk, kraut rock, no wave and electronic music is a proven sound dialectics between local and global.

The band has been formed in 1993 by Gökçe Akçelik, Barkın Engin, Orçun Bastürk, Selçuk Artut and Burak Tamer. By now Replikas has published five albums. On their third album Avaz, released in 2005 under Doublemoon Records, they worked together with the producer Wharton Tiers who has worked with bands such as Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore and Dinosaur Jr. Their last album Zerre was recorded in a former prison on a deserted island, Gökçeada and released by Peyote Music in 2008.

Replikas has also been working on various movie soundtracks: for the film Maruf (2001) of the acclaimed film director Serdar Akar, and for Kutlug Ataman’s film Two Girls (2005). Replikas also participated in the music film Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005) by the film director Fatih Akın.

Replikas is simply a must-hear!

www.replikas.com

Cripple and Casino – Straight outta Zagreb, Croatia! We have here a sound that’s best described as ‘Eighties vs. Nineties vs. Now’. Cripple and Casino are the only band on Radio Is Down (an independently owned and operated record label, Northwestern nook, Olympia, Washington) active roster to proudly list Phil Collins, of Genesis fame, as an influence. As much as they love Phil, you won’t find a lick of his influence in these sounds. Instead you’ll be enveloped in a late-eighties / early-nineties DC – by way of Chicago – sound.

The band – Petra Dražić (voice), Marko Knez (drum set), Danijel Zec (bass guitar), Darko Kujundžić (treble guitar) – released in 2009 at the Radio Is Down label an album which raised attention in noise rock circles: “CAC have their vision of noise rock, which is not in fact filtered noise, nor is it classic rock. … All in all, a certain ‘negative’ atmosphere created properly and without banal/transparent solutions. … it stands that Petra’s voice is functional and suits the musical background completely. She sings and holds the melody when necessary, goes into the phrasing of one Leslie Rankine or early PJ Harvey when the song requires it and it all has a very convincing effect.” (Vladimir Horvat, Terapija)

www.myspace.com/crippleandcasino
crippleandcasino.bandcamp.com

DJ Chaspa’s music performance will include authorized live song performance that will extend into a DJ-set which will involve ethno-contemporary music from the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia – the region formally known as the Balkans – and Turkey. DJ Chaspa will let this chain of wooded mountains to spread and crossover to the region known as Orient … and then he will let the God to help us save our souls.

Asmir Šabić / DJ Chaspa (1979, Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is a musician with a big list of different projects, musicians and bands he has worked and played with: Alternativa Nova, Bezbrižni Rupert, Ultra Red Orchestra, Vuneny, Brain Damage, Fedayi Pacha, Alexander Hacke, Bülent Kullukcu, Daqui Dub, Tuna Trio and Ghost´s, Majmoon and others.

Asmir studied theatre pedagogy at the University Džemal Bijedić in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina and social pedagogy at the Jönkoping University, Sweden. He worked as a social worker at different NGO’s in BiH; he was also a program coordinator of the OKC Abrašević in Mostar (www.okcabrasevic.org). He was involved in many international and regional festivals and projects in the former Yugoslavia region, as Cross Radio Network; Short Film Festival Mostar; Vivisect Festival Mostar/Novi Sad; Exit Novi Sad; Mostar Intercultura Festival etc.

Asmir is currently based in Munich, Germany, creating music with Daqui Dub (Marseille, France), Majmoon (Munich, Germany), and is involved in projects of independent and subculture art trough events like Majmusical Monday, Balkan Lounge Glockenbachwerkstatt, Import Export Munich. Asmir’s sound art works have been presented at: Crossing Munich (sound installation, 2009), Not by Note (Steirsche Herbst international festival of modern art Graz, Austria, 2010), Cycling Wars (sound installation München Bayern Kaserne, 2011) and elsewhere.

www.myspace.com/chaspa86