30 May | 17:00, Vodnikova domačija  Artist talk: Creating in a Diaspora – Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly

Moderator: Arlette Hovinga

When the great Chicago-based record label International Anthem released Mestizx last year, the avant-jazz and experimental musical community immediately sat up and took notice. Those with their ears to the ground in Amsterdam were probably aware that something was brewing, but the rest of us only realised when we got our hands on the record. Slovenia is pretty familiar with Frank Rosaly, world-class improviser and master of the stick, the brush and other accoutrements of the percussionist’s trade, but the voice of Bolivian-born Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti has come as a major revelation. Partners in life as well as art, these two artists have buried themselves deep into the sounds of their Bolivian, Brazilian and Puerto Rican ancestors to create a series of profound personal meditations about decolonisation and the defiant power of ritual and protest.

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti (vocals, synths, guitar, lyra, percussion, performance) / Frank Rosaly(drums, percussion, electronics) / James McClure (trumpet, percussion, synth) / Lida Brouskari (synths) / Uldis Vitols (bass, moog synth)

They chose the title ‘Mestizx’, a gender-neutral form of the often slippery Spanish colonial word for ‘person of mixed heritage’, as a means of challenging and embracing the liminal nature of their identities and artistic practices. Mestizx will arrive at Druga Godba as a super-diasporic quintet that spans four continents, with musicians from Bolivia, the US, South Africa, Greece and Latvia. Thunderously experimental but eminently danceable, this is how we’ll be celebrating Friday night into Saturday morning.

In co-production with Defonija series and Klub Gromka.