VA: Kraj Vardarot Sesii vo Audiokultura [pmgjazz 045] 2023

This is unique stuff, make no doubt about it. Apart from being the only Macedonian live album pressed on vinyl ever (Leb i Sol also did it in 1982, but that was in another galaxy), this is very very cool and unexpected song collection. Dramatic and very unlikely gathering, that only PMGJAZZ can afford in the earth’s northern hemisphere. No exaggeration here at all.

Contemporary, avant guard Macedonian music, recorded live at one of the most authentic and intimate concert spaces Skopje can offer: Audiokultura. Brilliant sound design, meets wide range of fascinating musical talent, meets sophisticated understanding of art by Božinovski watches and jewelry. An honest and authentic investment towards development of a modern Macedonian sonic identity.

1. Alembic – Sins Of The Feather
music and lyrics: Iva Damjanovski, Viktor Tanaskovski

2. Marija Kaeva Trio – Prvo pa Žensko
music: Vladan Drobicki, Marija Kaeva
lirycs: Marija Kaeva
arranged by: Vladan Drobicki

3. Mirko Popov Quartet – Novo Ime
music: Siniša Evtimov, Mirko Popov
lirycs: Mirko Popov

4. Gligor Kondovski – Some Faded Memories
music and arrangement: Gligor Kondovski

5. Damir Imeri Trio – Akasha
music and arrangement: Damir Imeri

6. Filip Bukrshliev Trio – Binary, Elegant
music: Filip Bukrshliev
arranged by: Filip Bukrshliev, Andrea Mirčeska, Slavčo Kocev

7. Sethstat – God Bless The Child
music: A. Herzog, B.Holyday
arrangement: Sethstat

KRAJ VARDAROT SESII VO AUDIOKULTURA
compilation
curated and produced by: Mirko Popov and Vladan Drobicki
recorded live at Audiokultura, mixed and mastered by Vladan Drobicki
sleeve design by Gorjan Glaveski

Andreja Salpe, Oliver Mitkovski: POETRONIKA [pmgjazz 043] 2023

POETRONIKA is an innovative art project that contains a creative selection of works from Macedonian poetic creativity placed in a contemporary musical context, more precisely in an electronic musical form. It is about our authentic poetic creation, which chronologically includes poets from
the first post Second world war generation, up to some of today’s contemporary, Macedonian authors. Poetronica differs from all previous similar attempts in the very approach to the narrative and tries to avoid stereotypes about how it is interpreted and what musical form fits a poetic expression.
Andreja Salpe, one of our precious musial talents, fluidly combines electronic music with jazz, ambient and instrumentalisation. Over the top we get spoken word by Oliver Mitkovski, the most prominent Macedonian actor, who gets absolutely everything right. POETRONIKA delivers right atmosphere in the right time. It is innovative, meditative, dancey, all in all, very very cool. One of the best projects we ever managed.
A must have!

Spoken words by Oliver Mitkovski
Written, mixed, and produced by Andreja Salpe, during 2023
Arranged by Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski
Mastered by Vladan Drobicki
Artwork by Oliver Mitkovski

‘Poetronika’ chronologically includes Macedonian poets from the first post Second world war generation, up to some of today’s contemporary authors. 

Andreja Salpe, Oliver Mitkovski
POETRONIKA 

01. Psalm za Mlle Lili | POETRONIKA
(lyrics: Aco Karamanov; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

02. Jas pa ti | POETRONIKA
(lyrics: Gogo Ivanovski; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

03. Natasha Celakoska | POETRONIKA 
(lyrics: Goran Petreski; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

04. Dve prikazni | POETRONIKA 
(lyrics: Combination of ‘Vladimir Lukash’s ‘Mnogu glupa prikazna’ and Olivera Kjorvezirovska’s ‘Izbrishana prikazna’; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

05. Fatalino | POETRONIKA
(lyrics: Slavko Janevski; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

06. Pej mi | POETRONIKA 
(lyrics: Blazhe Konevski; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

07. Koj sum | POETRONIKA 
(lyrics: Gjoko Zdraveski; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

08. Tvojata tishina | POETRONIKA 
(lyrics: Andreja Risteski; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

09. Osamenost | POETRONIKA 
(lyrics: Radmila Trifunovska; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

10. Milo sonce | POETRONIKA 
(lyrics: Compilation of Igor Isakovski’s ‘Milo sonce’, ‘Zalegnat vrz stihovi’, ‘Smislata na edna nokj’; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

11. Slushaj | POETRONIKA 
(lyrics: Compilation of Igor Isakovski’s ‘Slushaj’, ‘Dozhd’, ‘Kje spijam’, ‘Znaesh’; Spoken words: Oliver Mitkovski; music: Andreja Salpe;  Arrangement: Andreja Salpe and Oliver Mitkovski)

Gligor Kondovski, Vladan Drobicki, Deni Omeragic: Conceptual LIVE at Jadro [pmgjazz 042] 2023

This flying impro number, marks the start of our new little FREEway of LIVE releases, recorded “on field” by ourselves and played by our friends. See, we often arrange concerts, even a festival here in Skopje, North Macedonia, so more or less we started recording everything we do. The best stuff we record – we release and it’s all going to be FREE DOWNLOAD. We want you to have it and save your money for the next contingent of quality modern Macedonian jazz and whatever else’s revolving around it. We’re counting on you and yes! you can count on us.

G. Kondovski – violin
V. Drobicki – trombone
D. Omeragic – double bass

All music composed by Kondovski/Drobicki/Omeragic

Recorded 02.11.2023 at SCS Centar – Jadro by Pavel Drobicki
Mixed and produced by Vladan Drobicki

Filip Bukrshliev, Blagojche Tomevski: Something Lonely In The Bone [pmgjazz 041] 2023

On Sundays, the production designers, the make-up artists, the writers, the producers: the whole crew is at home, resting. The studio is empty. Even the wig of the news announcer is left on the stand. There is no news, nothing to be reported. Time runs… slow. Perfect opportunity for two seasoned weirdos to use the room to make some noise. If you are a regular at this label, you may know them from Taxi Consilium: one of them has moustaches like an Austro-Hungarian count, the other one is overweight. The location of the recording session: the studio floor of ТВ Свет (TV World) a local TV station in the town of Sveti Nikole. The instruments: bass clarinet and guitar. The key: D minor. Very loosely…

Blagojche Tomevski – bass clarinet
Filip Bukrshliev – guitar

Composed by Blagojche Tomevski and Filip Bukrshliev
Recorded by Vladan Drobicki in TV Svet, Sveti Nikole, on 15.01.2023.
Mixed and mastered by Vladan Drobicki, January 2023.
Cover by Filip Bukrshliev.
Special thanks to Gjore Dechkov for the help and hospitality.

Gligor Kondovski, Vladan Drobicki, Deni Omeragic: OUTCAST [pmgjazz 040] 2022

Well, well, what we have here… It’s our usual suspects!!! Thee peoples who can not stop doing this wonderful adventurous inspiring free music. For the lovers of open meditative spaces and complications without boundaries… we offer you the exceptional double bass-trombone-violinistic trio of ours. Our bestest friends and musicians and jazzists and beautiful people of ours. This music will probably blow your minds, but you’re here to be blown, ain’t you?

Composed and performed by
Gligor Kondovski – violin
Vladan Drobicki – trombone
Deni Omeragic – double bass
Cover art by Gligor Kondovski
Recorded by Gligor Kondovski and Vladan Drobicki
Produced by Vladan Drobicki

VA: Kraj Vardarot Jazz Vol​.​2 [pmgjazz 035] 2022

Welcome to our new compilation, originally out on vinyl and telling a story about an unexpected growth of a record label that is PMGJazz. It’s been strange and rewarding this adventure of ours, picking up the coolest stones off the Macedonian musical soil. And it is musical indeed. It’s daring and beautiful in the same tame. You get a lot in the same frame and it is rich and thick and going places and… We don’t know how this happens, we just do it and wonder later. But this makes us happy. Hope it will make you happy too. It’s free to download. So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you our friends and music lovers out there <3

Sethstat – Tour de Sofija
(Vladan Drobicki, Panče Bujukliev, Pavel Drobicki, Goce Naumov, Vasko Bojadžiski)
Sapere Aude
(Panče Bujukliev, Vasko Bojadžiski)
Filip Bukršliev Trio – Broken and Reassembled
(Filip Bukršliev, Andrea Mirčeska, Slavčo Kocev)
Kanton6 – Bogomilska Krv (The Blood of Bogomil)
(Mirko Popov, Siniša Evtimov, Vladan Drobicki)
Dino Imeri – Sketch of a Street
(Dino Imeri)
Gligor Kondovski, Marija Kaeva, Vladan Drobicki – Mila Zima
(Gligor Kondovski, Marija Kaeva, Vladan Drobicki)

KRAJ VARDAROT JAZZ
compilation volume 2
Produced and curated by
Mirko Popov & Vladan Drobicki
Sleeve design by Violeta Kachakova

Gligor Kondovski: Encounter [pmgjazz 039] 2022

Winter is coming…. well, you’ll never hear me say that. But it is coming and nothing can spoil the enchanting stillness of the inevitable motion. The quiet has been stolen by the noisy, greasy and the unworthy… but it’s coming home. Slowly by the endless November rain (it wasn’t me:), than gently by the first frosty December mornings. You’ll have to comply. Willingly. This omnipresent beauty of this album is your will to do just that. Gligor Kondovski has his own way of unwrapping stuff and he just unwrapped some winter for us all to enjoy. This just makes me want to stay home. Home inside. Inside myself. It’s just beautiful.

Music by Gligor Kondovski
Музика на Глигор Кондовски
Piano, Sounds, Electronics and Violin

Сеуште сонуваме за подобар свет…We still dream of a better world…

LARTA: Fragments [pmgjazz 038] 2022

it’s like this:
Imagine you’re cool guy, nice outfit, grown up taste in music, coolest friends in town and you go out occasionally. So you go out in a bar and there’s some random jazz band playing. And they’re really good. Not too much structure, than again not too much improvisation. They go places, they do hooks, here and there they drop chillingly cool atmospheres, but somehow still playing for the crowd. And you’re the crowd. You, the cool one and your coolest friends on a random night out.
So, ladies and gentlemen, this is for you true jazz lovers out there.
From the heart.

Composed by Dejan (Dino) Milosavljevic
Arranged and performed by Larta
Recorded at Petite Cinematique by Vladan Drobicki
Produced by Vladan Drobicki
Larta are:
Dino Milosavljevic, drums
Gjoko Maksimovski, bass
Vasko Bojadziski, sax
Vladan Drobicki, trombone, synths
Cover photo by Dino Milosavljevic
Cover design by Marko Krstevski

Sethstat: Soba 107 [pmgjazz 037] 2022

Hi Ho!
It’s time for the CHAMPAGNE SHOP!
After the last year’s incredible White Night LIVE album that we all enjoyed so much, here comes SETHSTAT new album, their 10th. Being living legends of the Macedonian vibrant jazz scene, they deliver, and they deliver in style. One might say this is their best album work so far, but their ever growing, everlasting, unstoppable tendency to please themselves and God probably, can always outgrow any expectation. This undusted veterans of thee Jazz craft are at their peak as musicians, as well as creative persona. As you already know, they give you the best hell ever playing live and this is no different concerning the energy and focus involved. But this sound is perfectly glazed with all around mature production and ornamented with the best brass hooks you ever heard. So bow down… ok, don’t 🙂 You just spend your best 7 bucks ever and thank me later.
Take care.

All songs composed, arranged and performed by Sethstat

Sethstat are:
Vasko Bojadziski -sax
Vladan Drobicki-trbn
Panche Bujukliev-synths
Pavel Drobicki-bass
Goce Naumov-Drums

Guests:
Filip Bukrshliev-guitar
Аleksandar Zlateski-trumpet
Gligor Kondovski-violin
Micko Damnjanovski-tuba
Mirko Popov-samples

Recorded at Soba 107 in MKC Skopje, by Sethstat
Mixed and a produced by Vladan Drobicki
Cover design Violeta Kachakova
Cover photo by Kalina Drobicki

Toka Shitet: Toka Shitet [pmgjazz 036] 2022

And now for something completely different!
Toka Shitet is a new exciting project by one cool Skopje alternative rock persona, Mr. Idriz Ameti. Always on the edge of something unheard and well combined, he’s off exploring an uncharted territory between Albanian folk music and indie rock (probably grunge:) …
In his capable hands you can see sharki (Serbo-Croatian: šargija, шаргија; Albanian: sharki or sharkia, anglicized as shargia) a plucked, fretted long necked lute used in the folk music of various Balkan countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo. That very sharki sounds like a world orchestra, backing his painful, emotional singing voice and sounds like nothing you ever listened to. This is deeply authentic expression. Gotta give it a go.

Written and performed by Idriz Ameti
except 5, written by John Lennon
Recorded live at Jazzy 14.01.2022
Mix and master Vladan Drobicki