After three years, Druga Godba is finally returning to its traditional week-long slot at the end of May. As always, it will feature a host of domestic and European premieres, as well as the return of artists who have gone on to even greater things since we first saw them in Ljubljana. The festival offers seven evenings of music at seven different venues, with artists from twelve countries and five continents.
The undisputed headliners this year are Sons of Kemet from the UK, but they’re closely followed by Rodrigo Cuevas from Spain, Bab L’Bluz from Morocco, Orquesta Akokán from Cuba, and Moor Mother from another planet. The excellent Argentinian singer Juana Aguirre will be presenting her solo project in Europe for the first time, while veteran Slovenian outfit Brina have a new album to share with us.
A special feature of this year’s festival will be a mini ‘showcase’ of Slovenian talent: the up-and-coming quartet Gugutke, seasoned campaigner Kristijan Krajnčan and his new Drumming Cellist project (The Mountains Roared), and Mala mestna muzika, a small-scale ensemble that deftly combines Slovenian poetry and music. Druga Godba will be making its first foray into the music of Siberia with UDU, who will be uniting the traditions of Buryatia with those of Lithuania in the lovely Švicarija garden in Tivoli Park, while homegrown matadors Jimmy Barka Experience and Pijan slavej from North Macedonia will appear at a new concert venue in front of the Tabor sports hall and cultural centre.
The day before that will see a collaboration between Druga Godba and Defonija in the form of the exceptional New York quartet Columbia Icefield, led by composer and trumpeter Nate Wooley.
The programme for this year’s festival was created by Bogdan Benigar (programme committee chair), Nika Vogrič Dežman, Senada Čorović, Ira Kolbezen and Zoran Pistotnik.
This year Druga Godba has revived its partnership with Gigodesign; this stretches all the way back to 1994, when Matevž Medja first produced design work for the festival. The designer for the 2022 edition is Kaja Kisilak.
Sound Migrations at the 38th Druga Godba festival will be co-produced with Cankarjev Dom and Kino Šiška. It is supported by the Ministry of Culture and the City of Ljubljana.
The festival’s lead media partner is the PRVI channel, which is broadcast by Radio Slovenija.
The Rodrigo Cuevas and Orquesta Akokán concerts are sponsored by Zavarovalnica Triglav d.d.
Festival passes and tickets for most of the individual events are already on sale online via mojekarte.si. Tickets for the Rodrigo Cuevas in Orquesta Akokán concerts can be purchased from the Cankarjev Dom website.
See you at the 38th edition of Druga Godba!
