Skopje, 18 April 2024 (MIA) – Ahead of the 5th 'Kraj Vardarot Jazz' festival, organizers Vladan Dobricki and Violeta Kachakova, as well as artists from this year's program, Oliver Mitkovski of the "Poetronica" project, Dunja Ivanova of the music-poetry project "The Smell of the Linden Trees," and Big Band conductor Ljupcho Mirkovski held a press conference at the Laboratorium Cultural Center on Thursday.

Violeta Kachakova said the innovation in the creation of the festival's program is present both in the work of the artists and in the way they present their music. This year's edition, she added, transcends the boundaries of artistic disciplines and music genres, connecting jazz, electronic and contemporary music, poetry and prose.

"The festival is closely connected to the PMGJazz record label. With the 47 editions of Macedonian jazz, world, and contemporary music, apart from being publishers, we continually organize concerts and listening parties. Local music becomes available to international music professionals and curators, who recognize its quality, through a series of awards for best jazz albums and compositions of some of the PMGJazz releases, awarded by music platforms 'Bandcamp' and 'All About Jazz.' Prior to the start of the festival, PMGJazz came out with three new editions of artists who will perform at the festival," Kachakova said.

Oliver Mitkovski, who is part of the "Poetronica" project, said the way the poetry is interpreted and performed destroys the inert general opinion on performing poetry. He added that music and poetry are in perfect symbiosis, and although the focus is electronic music, it also contains elements of jazz and ethno music. 

"Andreja Salpe creates a perfect tapestry of sounds, and the narration, the poetry breaks all cliché. Our goal was to shatter the banal way of interpreting poetry, and the cliché that comes by inertia here about how Macedonian poetry is performed. It was Mirko who first recognized the quality of this project. He recently gave us a selection of unpublished poetry, some of which is included in our rendition of Mirko Popov and Sethstat's song 'Circles,' that will premiere on April 27," Mitkovski noted.

The festival is set to open on April 20 at the Laboratorium Cultural Center, starting at 9 pm with a performance by a faction of four young musical ascetics called the "Cobalt Code Unit" who, according to the organizers, unite tradition, contemporary jazz, and industrial noise.

On April 23, the music-poetry project "The Smell of the Linden Trees" composed of Dunja Ivanova on piano, and author of the lyrics and narrator, Tina Ivanova, will perform at the Philharmonic, starting at 8 pm.

The Big Band will take the stage at 9 pm, conducted by Ljupcho Mirkovski to music by one of the pillars of contemporary jazz composition - Kire Kostov.

The Macedonian Free Society and "Poetronica" are set to close the festival with performances at the Laboratorium Cultural Center on April 27. According to the organizers, the Macedonian Free Society is composed of instrumentalists that have been a part of PMGJazz since its very beginning, while "Poetronica" is one of the most exciting projects that combines Macedonian poetry and contemporary electronic music in the form of a poetry and musical performance.

The fifth edition of the "Kraj Vardarot Jazz" festival will be held in honor of the late Mirko Popov, who created the festival together with Vladan Dobricki. The festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture, in cooperation with the Youth Cultural Center (MKC) and the Philharmonic, while "The Smell of the Linden Trees" concert is supported by Centar Municipality.

Tickets are available online via bileti.mk. Admission is free on April 20. ssh/nn/

 Photo: Dimitar Apostolov