This is the second release, the culmination of the Skordas-Teodosiev-Tomevski collaboration early this year (the first album, Re-Absorption of Light, also on PMGJazz), only this time the trio is augmented to a sextet. The unusual instruments in the line-up provide the musicians with all the spectral tools needed to capture the full scope of the comical dichotomy inherent to the Balkan experience: where the sound of various traditional small flutes pierces the bulky, pseudo-sophisticatedly voiced guitar chords like a wraith from the past, while the bagpipes beckon the double-bass to join them in an all-gas-no-brakes fire music extravaganza. This music is pure Balkan free-jazz pandemonium, but in the best kind of way. Like a tour guide that is well informed in the free-jazz practices of the revered 60’s, it grabs you by the hand and takes you to a godforsaken part of the Osogovo mountains. You find yourself in some unearthly dark forest, where wild boars roam free and the huge beech trees provide you with cover while you dodge the bullets from the poachers. At night you witness some secret pagan ritual, encounter some odd looking mushrooms and quench your thirst by drinking cold-cold water directly from the spring. Maybe later, you try some of the wild berries…

Composed, arranged and performed by:

Nikolas Skordas – tenor sax, soprano sax, bag pipe (gajda and tsampuna), bells, shells, tarogato
Blagojche Tomevski – bass clarinet, clarinet
Vladan Drobicki – trombone
Filip Bukrshliev – el.guitar
Deni Omeragic – double bass
Dragan Teodosiev – drums

Recorded and produced by Vladan Drobicki
Cover art by Dimitar Apostolov Zewlean