Tijana Stanković
Folk Songs
SWEDEN FRIM RECORDS FRIM 7 C.D. (2024)
Festival/concert arranger, experimental music label; Sweden’s ‘House of FRIM’ (Association for Free Improvised Music), has now seen fit to release Serbian violinist/vocalist Tijana Stanković’s follow-up to her solo debut Freezer (LOM Records/2020/Slovakia). Her background began in folk during her mid-teens and she eventually found herself studying ethnomusicology at Serbia’s Novi Sad Academy of Arts. Over time, her blend of indigenous folk music and improv disciplines saw her participating in Paniks, the Budapest-based Argo and the internationalist Hyperion Ensemble. During 2023, she also received a number of gold stars from those in the music press for her contributions to Dens; Lenhart Tapes’ folked-out noise album on the Glitterbeat imprint. While her debut release zeroed in on a large chunk of contemporary impro, Folk Songs digs deeper into age old folk signatures while still keeping a watchful eye or two on that very important chance element. This is perfectly encapsulated by “Song for the Bees” and “Jano Mori”. Inspired by a ritual song of the beekeeper, the former track seemingly (?) heads towards a bout of rosin-deficient bowing, in order to get that extra bark and bite, while the latter sees Tijana extending and embellishing themes from a traditional song that originated from Macedonia.
Captured in the presence of a live audience at Stockholm’s Fylkingen venue in 2022, John Chantler’s thankfully basic recording set-up (with Guiseppe Ielasi on mastering duties), makes for an intensely personal vision that adds a fresh and unique edge to genre fusion – and oh, a twinning of the bows with fellow avant violinist Mia Zabelka would be pure ear candy.