More than 50 artists are set to play across Sofia during this year’s SoAlive Music Festival. A few of them caught our attention in particular – for the way they work with tradition, improvisation, jazz and contemporary production without treating any of those as fixed categories.
photo: Ana Everling by Christopher Sanders
Moldovan-born, US-based vocalist and composer Ana Everling draws on Romanian and Moldovan vocal traditions like doina (a traditional lyrical musical genre, associated with the shepherd’s way of life and a sense of longing), improvisation and contemporary jazz. Her current work continues to explore how ancestral melodies and vocal forms can be reshaped through an improvisational, present-day language.
photo: Telli Davul by Bartu Ozbatur
Istanbul’s Telli Davul bring together 1970s Anatolian rock, psychedelia, funk, disco and jazz, with instruments including çağlama (contemporary hybrid string instrument that fuses the traditional Turkish saz, with the design and amplification of an electric guitar) and bowed tambur. Their live music is driven by groove and improvisation, with traditional sound pushed firmly into the present.
photo: ARBËRESHË
Based in Prishtina, A R B Ë R E S H Ë approaches Albanian folk music through voice, guitar, frame drum, shruti box (a small, bellows-operated free-reed acoustic instrument from India that produces a continuous, sustained musical drone) and looping. The project is closely tied to memory, roots and return, giving traditional songs a deeply personal frame.
photo: Elsa Mouratidou by Giorgos Alexakis
Elsa Mouratidou Quartet revisit traditional songs from Greece and neighbouring countries through a contemporary jazz-informed ensemble of voice, saz, panduri, Black Sea fiddle, piano and drums. Their Epsilon & Theta project centres on songs of love and death.
photo: Almir Mešković and Daniel Lazar
Accordionist Almir Mešković and violinist Daniel Lazar draw on Balkan folk traditions, chamber music and improvisation. Their duo has a strong sense of dialogue, with both instruments carrying rhythm, melody and tension in equal measure.
photo: Dimitrije Dimitrijević by Marina Uzelac
Niš-born, Zagreb-based Dimitrije Dimitrijević moves through alternative songwriting, electronics, blues, funk and more atmospheric territory. His music feels deliberately open-ended, shifting between intimacy, texture and groove rather than settling into one fixed direction.
photo: Peyotoff
Bulgarian guitarist and producer Peyotoff brings a more contemporary local perspective, moving between jazz, neo-soul, instrumental hip-hop and beat-driven production. His work feels fluid and current, with guitar at the centre but never confined by it.
Their sounds and stories vary, but each of these projects makes us want to listen a little closer. See you somewhere between the stages at SoAlive.
text: Sofia Hussein for Dinya
photos: courtesy of the artists
