Who See, the coolest rappers in Montenegro, are coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
Shoulder to shoulder with Ajs Nigrutin and Vojko V, they are the voice of a small and rejected transitional loser of the ex-Yugoslavian sphere.
Although they are a vox populi, they never suck up to the masses. For example, their song ‘Đedovina’ bluntly speaks about all the greed we carry, regardless of our class, gender and race. These self-proclaimed kings stand up to the world’s crisis armed with their vibe of pure pleasure of the Bay of Kotor life, summarized in two words: ‘Nije preša!’ (‘There’s no hurry!’). Who See is really one of the rare crews – pardon me, klapas – whose verses become ingrained in the pop culture like lines from famous films, becoming social codes we exchange in everyday life: ‘Đe se kupaš?’ (‘Where d’you go swimming?’), ‘Nemam ti kad’ (‘I haven’t got time to’) etc.
Their matrices and beats are thought out in such a way to make the audience jump non-stop throughout the gig, and their moment of ‘poetry’ is full of refined, (auto)ironic humor weaving Mediterranean vibes while representing the oppressed. Who are Who See? It is Noyz, it is Dedduh, fifty-fifty.
Artan Lili
The band Artan Lili will be performing at the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
For those who still haven’t heard about them, Artan Lili is a noise-pop band from Belgrade which has won all the possible laurels on regional top lists, and how good they are at making hits is maybe best shown by the fact that their songs can be heard even in your favorite shopping mall. The secret of their success lies in contagious harmonies and meticulously thought out arrangements with very energetic rhythm completely synchronized with the bass.
It is a polished city experience with the emphasis on music videos, which are as important to them as their music. They are actually one of the first regional bands which, so to say, have abandoned the concept of album, and have invested their energy into promoting singles, which they release one after the other. Their gigs are big rock and roll parties where they surf a new wave on a big colorful board which also carries their equally ardent audience.
Autopark
The band Autopark is coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival, bringing longing as firm as concrete.
These shoegazing pioneers of the Serbian music scene with a female lead-singer are not slaves to a certain style, but they have remained true to their deeply personal poetics stripped of all paroles and common places. So far, they have released four albums, in which they have moved through diverse sounds ranging from loud distorted guitar sounds through playful electro to Latino rhythms inserted into unpretentious pop. Ognjenka’s songs are radically sensitive, sometimes (auto)ironical, and even when they are performed in front of a larger audience, it is always a one-on-one meeting.
We got to know about them through a song ‘Na ivici’ (‘On Edge’), which, maybe, tells us that the world is on edge, and that although living on the edge is dangerous , it is the only place of freedom, where it is possible to love and be loved.
Adam Ben Ezra
Adam Ben Ezra, an Internet star and a truly great name of the global scene, is coming to this year’s Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
In Ezra’s hands, the contrabass shifts from the orchestral margin directly into the center! Ezra plays it in an innovative and totally cool way, making this huge instrument become, melodically and literally, a rhythm instrument whose enormous body turns into a drum. Adam is a multi-instrumentalist – he also plays the violin, guitar, piano, clarinet, oud and flute, and, when needed, he can also beatbox.
Annually, he gives more than 200 performances, combining jazz, world music, rock and improvised music. Jazz FM has characterized him as a luminous virtuoso who gives athletic performance which takes your breath away.
Adam Ben Ezra uses his abilities to turn his performances into true spectacles which produce instant fans.
Gramophonedzie live
At the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest – Gramophonedzie will reveal to us in an entirely new way to which extent swing really is dance music, but also how thanks to art and technology the differences between Peggy Lee and Beyoncé disappear.
Gramophonedzie, aka Marko Milićević, a producer and a DJ, is, without exaggeration, like Novak Đoković of the clubbing world. His music is a dance dedication to jazz, immersed in house beats. The hit ‘Why Don’t You’ launched Gramophonedzie to as high as the 12th place on the UK singles list, and it is one of the songs which were played the most at both underground and mainstream clubs in 2009. Milićević participated in Red Bull Music Academy in Ireland as one of the most talented DJs of the region, which was, according to his own words, the turning point in his career that made him completely devote himself to music.
Gramophonedzie has already traveled across the globe several times during his ongoing two-year tour.
Gradić will party as if it were celebrating your birthday!
Lovely Quinces
The new wave of the Croatian female singer-songwriter scene is bringing Lovely Quinces – Dunja Ercegović, a charming and temperamental musician from Split – to the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
Judging from her recently released singles, Lovely Quinces continues on the rock and roll path there where PJ Harvey stopped. It is a full-blooded punk-rock, in which Dunja finds her true form of expression.
Besides having had numerous solo performances across Europe, Lovely Quinces has been a supporting act for some great names of the foreign music scene, and she has toured with Giant Sand and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth). Her sharp and clear voice, accompanied with a strong guitar groove testifies about female subjectivity which does not suck up in any way to patriarchal expectations. Dunja’s music is passionate, with spine, and during her performances, between songs, she often gives the audience a wider context about the making of her songs, giving them an even stronger intensity grounded in life.
Tinto Brass Street Band
The Italian brass orchestra Tinto Brass Street Band is coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest – bringing the spirit of Dixieland to the streets of Gradić.
It is a music of the early jazz era, born in New Orleans. Tinto Brass say that their role models are Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Sidney Bechet and other stars of hot jazz. However, the music is not the only thing in the foreground here. The band involve and engage the audience, dance and surprise with their spontaneity. They have played at numerous European festivals. Their primary goal is to take jazz music to its roots – to the highly concentrated fun!
BRUiTAL
Bruital is a group of musicians who are coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival to shake Gradić with their sonic rhythms.
Bruital use drums and lo-fi speakers to make acoustic noisy trance, opening completely new sound landscapes.
These moving totems balance between power and vulnerability, resistance and surrender, order and chaos. Their powerful rhythms are filled with gentle electro music produced in real time during a performance which includes masks, which creates a seductive, partly uncanny experience of experimental punk fanfares of the 21st century.
The Flamenco Thief
The Flamenco Thief – that is, Craig Sutton – is coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest from England.
Craig is one of the most interesting musicians of the British DIY scene. He uses a guitar looper pedal, stacking neatly combined layers of gypsy swing, rumba, ska and world music, often resorting to flamenco guitar playing technique, where his artistic name logically derives from. He uses the body of his guitar as a percussion, producing hip hop rhythms and other modern rhythms which introduce a dance element into Craig’s music.
The Flamenco Thief uses his original techniques and technology to take us on a ride through space and time in an entirely personal and unique way. Craig’s devotion to music is reflected in the fact that he has given 250 concerts in 40 states in only 10 months. Therefore, what we have here is a seasoned virtuoso with a powerful concept who loves music and knows how to play it!
Bohemija
The flower power band Bohemija from Niš is bringing psychedelic pop to the repertoire of this year’s Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
Bohemija is a serious band with filigree approach to both creating and performing songs. They have already released two albums, both for the record label ‘Pop Depresija’. Their songs contain Beatles-esque melancholic understanding of fun, as well as, of course, elements inspired by geographically closer role models like the bands Eva Braun and Veliki Prezir. The band have recently released a music video for their song ‘Prolazi vreme’, for which the band members used their home videos from their private collection. If any band should be announced with words ‘a must see’ it is certainly Bohemija.
KarasOrchestra
The Israeli orchestra KarasOrchestra are coming for the first time to the Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest, bringing fresh dance rhythms and tones which flow through salty Israeli air.
The band consists of educated musicians with very diverse music backgrounds ranging from classic and jazz to ethno and experimental music. The band is attracted by harmonies and rhythms of the East in the world music genre, which they perform in a unique and temperamental way.
Pinocchio Joins the Orchestra in the S.TR.E.E.T
This big international project represents a meeting of different methods for creating, learning and applying music. The young musicians from Portugal, Italy and Serbia are both the creators and the performers of a cycle of original compositions inspired by the famous story about the wooden puppet Pinocchio.
The compositions were created during creative workshops, in the interaction between music students and professors. On stage at Gradić Fest, we will see 40 choir and orchestra members using very diverse, both conventional and original instruments made of recycled materials. The music created within this project is based on the elements of childrens’ songs combined with classical and ethno music. Aleksandar Carić Car will be the conductor, and the stage background will be adorned by sculptures, some of which will be made on the spot. This project’s partner organizations are Orquestra Criativa SMF from Portugal, Una rete per la musica and Fondazione Nazionale ‘Carlo Collodi’ from Italy, Open Street from Belgium, and Music Art Project from Serbia. The project Pinocchio Joins the Orchestra in the S.TR.E.E.T is a part of the program Erasmus+ managed by the European Commission.
Belgrade Dixieland Orchestra
Belgrade Dixieland Orchestra is a unique live museum of the traditional Dixieland jazz music, which was cooking on the banks of the Mississippi river at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2001, a whole century later, these Dixies from Belgrade formed their seriously fun band, saving the fundamental jazz from oblivion. When they are in question, a dynamic, filigree gig is understood. Belgrade Dixieland Orchestra insist on costumes, movement and exchanging the joy of hot notes with the audience. This octet have played in most Serbian cities, but also in Hungary, Croatia, Austria, France and in many other places, and recently they have raised the temperature in Sombor to 100 °C, putting a huge grin on the audience’s faces.
The traditional parade which will open the Street Musicians Festival will be headed by these jazz gems from Belgrade.
Mitar Zorić
Mitar Zorić, a wanderer who has honed his skills on the asphalted streets of Belgrade, is coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest – bringing us Americana pearls and authorial songs, which he has been writing since primary school.
Over the years, his music taste has not changed as much as it has evolved, but, as he says, he still enjoys playing songs by The Doors, Tom Waits etc. The songs he has played the longest are the ones by Bob Dylan, because, as he says, he has found in them the song form he would like most to create, the one with expressive lyrics.
Bahtalo Dive
The four-member vocal-instrumental ensemble Bahtalo Dive from Kruševac are coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival to remind the audience of the sounds of old city songs and of our poets by interpreting them in their own way.
Translated from Romani, ‘Bahtalo Dive’ means ‘Good day’, and this acoustic band actually perform every song as if they wanted to wish a good day to themselves, to the audience and to the world. The band members are Vušin Simić on accordion, Tomislav Ilić on guitar, Mila Pavlović on vocals and castanets, and Borivoje Đorđević on vocals, clarinet and frula.
Lepša Brena
Lepša Brena will have their debut performance at the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest. Although there is a popular saying that ‘talking about rock and roll is like dancing about architecture’, Lepša Brena find their primary inspiration precisely in architecture and their songs speak about melancholy and alienation of urban environments.
The music that Lepša Brena play is a fine, quirky, and at times dark electropop, which isn’t surprising considering the fact that the two pillars of this duo are Attila Antal from the band The Antals and the architect Višnja Žugić. There is no music without space and vice versa!
Nemi Pesnik
The band Nemi pesnik, which will perform at the 19th Street Musicians Festival, is a full-blooded rock band from Novi Sad and it represents a long-awaited breath of fresh air on the Serbian alternative scene.
They are interested in ordinary people’s stories, the poetics of everyday life, and their role models are the stars of Myspace, the band Arctic Monkeys, as well as Muse, The Killers and all other rock bands which have shone after the year 2000. Their lead singer Milan Marković is an excellent storyteller, whom the audience loves to see on stage.
Teodor Njegovan
Twenty-year old Teodor Njegovan is coming to this year’s Street Musicians Festival with only a guitar and he is going to play jazz, the type of music he started to play only three years ago.
This young artist’s interest does not lie only in music, but also in science, but he says that his love towards science and technology has not diminished his love for the guitar. For him, the guitar represents respite from everyday routine, but also an obligation because of his strong desire to master different styles of playing. Teodor likes to experiment with styles, but it is somehow clear that what rocks his boat is the spirit of Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt.
The jazz ensemble Gypsy Jazz Trio from Belgrade is bringing a somewhat different jazz sound to Gradić Fest. These educated musicians from the Jazz Department at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade will premiere their first authorial works at Gradić Fest.
As the ensemble’s name suggests, they play jazz & gypsy jazz standards in arrangements that are new and more fun. So far, they have played at prestigious jazz festivals such as Nisville in Niš and Kavč Festival in Ljubljana, but also, and with the same enthusiasm, on the streets and at pubs in Belgrade, and – why not? – at house parties. The members of this jazz ensemble from Belgrade are Andrija Vojvodić on contrabass, Nikola Miloradović on saxophone and clarinet, and Nikola Burović on guitar.
Daniel Beja Gypsy Jazz Band
Daniel Beja Gypsy Jazz Band is coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival, bringing jazz subgenre gypsy swing to the streets of Gradić.
Daniel is a French guitarist with a world-renowned career, who has been recently residing in Novi Sad, where he has formed his band. He is a passionate virtuoso who has had hundreds of concerts across Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. Last year, he recorded an album with 12 compositions dedicated to Django Reinhardt. Daniel will be joined on stage by Predrag Đurić on guitar, Ervin Malina on contrabass, and Lazar Novkov on accordion. We are expecting a Woody Allenesque romanticism in Gradić, nothing less!
The Popović twins
The Popović twins will be the youngest participants in this year’s Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest!
The Popović twins are coming to the festival from the north of Banat, from Senta. Petar plays the accordion and the trumpet, and Nebojša plays the trumpet and the accordion. They are in the fourth grade of primary school but they have already won in as much as three categories at the 17th International Wind Instruments Solo Chamber Ensembles Competition in Pančevo. Besides music, they like tractors and combines and they are already helping their parents to cultivate the land. The Popović twins are great showmen and they immediately win the hearts of the audience.
Vladimir Nedeljković Zontag – a renaissance man – will take part in this year’s Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest. His music swims through genres, ranging from seductive harmonies in the vein of Scott McKenzie, Topić’s band Time, to the firm sounds in the vein of The Cult.
Zontag is a very prolific author, and besides music, the area of his work includes comics, literature, urban anthropology, history, law, and he has also published texts in the journals ‘Danas’, ‘Rok ekspres’, ‘Dnevnik’ etc. So far, he has released five albums. The music critic Aleksandar Žikić said that Zontag’s compositions were as relevant as his performance abilities. As Rainbow would say: Long live rock & roll!
Barka Dilo
Dance music, chansons, amorous verses worthy of the band Đura i mornari – that is what the band Barka Dilo is bringing to this year’s Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
Barka Dilo – it is a melting of reality in the passion of the Mediterranean lightness of being which we smell in the echo of the wind. Barka Dilo – young women and men who have given more than 200 performances during the band’s six-year existence, which is a long-standing presence on stage that raises the bar.
Miloš Zubac and Milan Korać
This folk, blues and rock hybrid duo from Novi Sad – Miloš Zubac and Milan Korać – will perform on the streets of Gradić at the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
The duo, consisting of the frontman of the band Prkos drumski, Miloš Zubac, and Milan Korać, a member of the band Šinobusi, have released two records, the last of which is a musical rendition of Serbian lyrical poetry classics. Here we find lyrics by Dis, Bojić, and, of course, by Miloš’s father Pera Zubac. The song ‘Svedok da sam znao’ was a hit of the week of The Radio 202 top list. They have performed at the Festival Poezika and Sterijino pozorje, and their next stop is Gradić.
BluVinil
The band BluVinil from Šibenik are coming to this year’s Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest. We could describe the band’s music as intelligent and pathetic – but in the best sense of the word!
During one of their gigs, they were noticed by an agent of the record label ‘Dallas Records’, who offered them a contract for their next two albums. In just one track, the band BluVinil can take you on a music ride ranging from modern pop spiced by elements reminiscent of Arsen Dedić to Bowiesque dramatic transitions and Suede-esque emotional guitar solos. Are they, then, a distorted LET 3? That remains to be seen in Gradić!
Vuk
Musician Vuk Vujačić is bringing a true street gig to this year’s Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest. In his improvisations, Vuk uses the so-called tapping technique on guitar put through reverb and delay pedals with knobs turned up to 11!
He says that he is more a chamber musician than a street musician, and that is not because he explores music in intimate surroundings or because he is timid, but because he has experienced conflicts with the police during his street performances. The turning point for Vuk was when he saw the performance by Paul Sebastian, a busker from London, who showed him a new world of guitar sounds in only 15 minutes.
Boris BIG BUBBLES
Boris BIG BUBBLES is arriving at the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest!
Boris BIG BUBBLES is an entertainer who makes the biggest soap balloons in the world!
You can even manage to enter one if you are gentle enough!
Đorđe Obradović Quintet
Đorđe Obradović Quintet will be performing at the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
Đorđe Obradović is a jazz singer who studied jazz singing at Berkley. He has performed at all clubs welcoming to jazz in Novi Sad. During his performance in Gradić he will be accompanied by Andreja Hristić on piano, Max Kochetov on saxophone, Boris Šainović on contrabass, and Miloš Grbatinić on drums.
Barbara Munjas
As a part of her rich regional 2019 tour, Barbara Munjas, a musician from Istra, will be performing at the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
After her long cooperation with the band Gustafi and her two studio albums recorded with her band Barbari, she has recently presented her second single ‘Right Place & Right Time’, for which she has also made a charming ex-Yu-nostalgic music video. In the creative process, Barbara likes to experiment with genres, and in any of her songs you can find perfectly combined echoes of disco, pop, funk and rock.
Poetsko-muzička kontrakcija
The performance by Duško Domanović and the band Hirurgija at the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest – will, for the first time, give us the opportunity to hear and see spoken word form at the festival.
It is a performance art based on reciting words – verses – aloud, in the form of a monologue; more precisely – it is a composed speech. Duško graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and published a collection of poems called ‘Nedelja popodne’ (‘Sunday Afternoon’), which entered the shortlist for Branko Radičević Award for Poetic Achievement. He also writes short stories, as well as literary, art and music critiques. Duško has a rule he always abides by: write only about what you have experienced – so, his poetics is unpretentious and engaged.
Duo Nomadico
Duo Nomadico are bringing nomadic romantic passion from vast Russian steppes to the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
Duo Nomadico are the singer Neda Nosović, also on guitar, and Ivan Seničić, who accompanies her on acoustic guitar. They formed their band having been seduced by the freedom, melancholy and longing that only Russian Gypsies can experience, and whose life soundtrack is like the one from the film Queen of the Gypsies.
In 2014, they released their album Divine Fantasy, which includes 18 tracks that we will hear at Gradić Fest.
Sing, Neda, you gypsy nightingale!
The Black Room
The band The Black Room are bringing the freshest sounds of the Rijeka music scene to the 19th Street Musicians Festival.
Just when we thought that the 90s electro dance music would push away the guitar sound to the margins, if not to the dumps of history, the powerful guitar riffs in the form of The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines etc. suddenly exploded on the music scene and now they have been blasting a whole decade, faithfully guarding rock and roll from oblivion.
The Black Room lean on the tradition of precisely this neo-garage sound, combining it with stoner pop, and sometimes blues, space rock and other related genres. They were the supporting act to the cult band Wovenhand in Rijeka. Their debut album, provocatively entitled In This Town Lies a City was well received by the audiences fond of indie vibe. Last year, they released the EP After Dark, on which they flirt with glam and post-punk and introduce synths, thus shaking off the hermetic quality of their debut album. The Black Room is a band that invests in itself, a band with serious instruments and production, a band that has the ambition to go beyond the local borders. Their trump card is their energetic performance, which absorbs you from the start!
Aviostoper
This band of authentic city artists is bringing the 80s new wave vibrations from the boulevards of Novi Sad to this year’s Street Musicians Festival.
They have reunited again to catch a strong wind towards freedom. ‘Barikade’ (‘Barricades’) is their first single – an invitation to everybody who is ready for that feeling.
Dušan Sekulić – an accordion maestro, but also a professional football player for the Bosnian national team, and a laureate of 28 international accordion competitions – is coming to the 19th Street Musicians Festival from the neighboring city of Bijeljina.
This virtuoso won the first place in Europe in 2007. Although he has obtained his Master degree in Accordion at the Viennese Frantz Schubert Music Conservatory playing the complex works of Bach, Mozart and Angelis, Dušan likes to flirt with many genres, so his program includes jazz, tango, rock, ethno and pop music influences.
Dušan is dedicated to creating his authorial music, which he performs with his band and which we will have the opportunity to hear this year in Gradić.
PSB Cypher @ Gradić Fest
For the first time at the Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest – PSB (Pub Street Battle) is organizing a big dance show with the following participants: two dance schools from Novi Sad, ‘Magic People’ and ‘Groove’, the dance association ‘Miroslav Batak Mićko’ from Futog, and ‘Plesni Studio Syle’ from Subotica.
The event will have the form of a Cypher, which means that the participants will form a circle, in whose center the dancers as well as the audience will have the opportunity to show their dancing skills. Dancers usually perform alone in Cypher, but this time there will be a part during which the dance schools (teams) will enter the circle and perform a choreography.
PBS (Pub Street Battle) represents a regional gathering of artists united by a joint hip hop vision. PBS is a project whose goal is raising the awareness of urban culture, but also an event dedicated to all the people eager to get to know urban and pop culture better. The event emphasizes the importance of connecting and exchanging ideas among young creative people, as well as the importance of collectiveness of passionate people who use movement and emotion to spread energy, push the boundaries and awake what is asleep inside of us.
⚡ Prvi put ove godine veliki PSB Cypher @Gradic Fest!Veliki plesni šou u kojem učestvuju: plesne škole “Magic People” i Plesno udruženje GroovE iz Novog Sada, plesno udruženje Plesno Udruženje Miroslav Batak Mićko iz Futoga i Plesni studio Style iz Subotice!👇 Pogledaj aftermovie sa prvog Pub Street Battle događaja!Pročitaj više o događaju 👉 https://www.ulicnisviraci.com/izvodjaci/psb-cypher-gradic-fest/Upadaj u događaj 👉 19. Festival uličnih svirača – Gradić festZaprati nas na IG 👉 http://bit.ly/ig-gradic-fest
Ilija Ludvig will be performing at the 19th Street Musicians Festival – Gradić Fest.
It could be said that Ilija Ludvig most conspicuously represents a model of the street musician that we imagine playing on muddy streets of London in the Victorian, hard work era.
Ilija Ludvig charmingly breaks the stage barriers, creating the unanimity between the audience and the artist, performer and musician (in that order). Ilija Ludvig suggests the nuances which the market logics neglects in its banal classification.
Ilija Ludvig is one of the last troubadours who burn with the longing for justice, heartbreaking love and intimacy they find where they are least expected.
Ilija Ludvig sings in a gentle way, in a way only powerful verses can be sung.
Vukashin
Vukashin comes from Novi Sad and he will be performing as an extension act at the festival’s opening, which will be headed by Belgrade Dixieland Orchestra, at the point 1, in Beogradska Street, at 7:30 p.m.
Vukashin is famous for his cult radio programs dedicated to the black sound.
This rhythm aficionado will take us on a ride ranging from hot jazz to funk, house and indie dance music.
Rhythm is a dancer!
Rock Camp for Girls
At this year’s Gradić Fest, for the first time and with great pleasure, we are welcoming participants in a rock camp for girls, and we hope to make it a tradition at our festival.
The rock camp for girls is a first camp of this type in the region, and it was founded by a group of female activists and musicians who, in this way, want to support and promote girls’ initiative to take up playing instruments and creatively express themselves through rock music. The first rock camp for girls took place two years ago on the mountain Avala, where 30 girls learned to play the guitar, drums and keyboards, to sing, make arrangements for songs, but also to produce music. The girls spontaneously formed bands, and after the camp there was a closing concert, when they had the opportunity to play their songs, after which everything changed.
Girls, just roll, because we know that a rolling stone gathers no moss!
