Brda Contemporary Music Festival

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Brda Contemporary Music Festival

Hiša kulture Šmartno, Šmartno 38-40, SI-5211 Kojsko

http://www.brda.si/tradicionalni_dogodki/2012091215575739/Brda%20Contemporary%20Music%20Festival/

tatjana.basin200@gmail.com

Organised byHiša kulture Šmartno

Frequencyannual

Festival dates10.9.2015 - 12.9.2015

Held in the hilly, wine growing region in the south west of Slovenia, Brda Contemporary Music Festival is a small and yet very diverse and ambitious festival for all kinds of arts, but with a focus on improvised music practices. It is held just by the border with Italy and this liminal location is also its main asset, as it tries to foster cross-cultural ties and cooperation, as well as create a cross-border musical scene. The festival's main organiser and curator, the drummer Zlatko Kaučič, has been operating in between the countries for a long time now, and has also been actively helping younger generations of musicians in their musical strivings. Thus, this festival is in a way a reflection of his personal artistic path, crossing the borders of countries, generations and also artistic practices.

The festival was first held in 2011, than still under the name Smartfest. It took place in the picturesque medieval village Šmartno, where it is still going on today and where it occupies the various parts of the walled village, from the hall of the local cultural centre to the main square and the church. In 2012, the festival temporarily moved to the nearby Medana and was first held as Brda Contemporary Music Festival.

Festival programme

Besides Zlatko Kaučič, the other festival curator is the Italian double bass player Giovanni Maier, a long-time collaborator of Zlatko. Together they present a programme that mainly features Slovenian and Italian artists of the younger generation, with the Italians often coming from DobiaLab, an informal cultural organisation and venue in the neighbouring rural Italian town xxxx. Similarly, the Slovenian musicians are often connected to Zlatko Kaučič Kombo project, in which a number of Slovenia's active improvisers have participated. Some of the musicians playing on the stages in Šmartno (or Medana) were Jošt Drašler, Vid Drašler, Marko Karlovčec, Boštjan Simon, Vitja Balžalorsky, Massimo di Matia, Pier Pascal, Aghe Clophe, and naturally also Kaučič and Maier.

Alongside these musical acts, there are usually photography exhibitions by photographers such as Žiga Koritnik or Iztok Zupan, and also light installation and performances by the crew of Hybrida Light Show from Italy. While the video performances are done in conjunction with the music being played, the installations are done on the village and its buildings. Dance performances, poetry acts and even film screenings are also done in an union with live improvised music being played, with some of the poets being Petra Koršič, xxxx and xxxx.

Music workshops and Orchestra Senza Confini

One of the main festival features are two or three-day long workshops, led by important figures from the improvised music scene, such as Evan Parker, Phil Minton, xxxx, xxxx and Ab Baars. The udeleženci of the workshops are usually both the invited musicians as well as others (coming both from Slovenia as well as Italy), and these workshops at the end result in orchestra gigs, led by the mentors of the workshops.

The name of these orchestra formations is Orkester brez meja / Orchestra Senza Confini [Orchestra without borders] and they are actually a combination of the Dub Orchestra (of the Dobia lab musicians) and of Kombo. In 2014, Zlatko and Giovanni started developing a double direigiranje concept which resulted in a 2014 concert of the Orchestra being recorded and released in 2015 by the xy label.

See also

• Zlatko Kaučič Kombo

External links

• Brda Contemporary Music Festival web page