9th Offest, Worldwide Music Festival

Macedonian minimalist musical concept band Baklava and the famous Turkish singer Aynur, known for her voice from Fatih Akın's documentary “Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul” opened the 9th Offest, Worldwide Music Festival.

Baklava was formed in 2005 as a result of the bond between the individual musical experiences of its members in their personal projects as well as the collaboration with other musicians and bands. It's a musical group with a minimalist musical concept: the sound is made by only one female vocal and two string and percussion instruments – the tambura and the bendir. The third major challenge in their musicianship is simplicity and unpretentious. Renouncing complex music forms and orchestrations, Baklava strives to express the perfection of simplicity, approaching its traditional folk music with reverent knowledge and sense of responsibility. Apart from the remakes of Macedonian folk compositions, Baklava’s worldview is open to other folk traditions as well. Still, the key challenge is to create original music in a vivid dialogue with the aesthetic achievements of traditional Macedonian music. So far, the band has recorded two albums, “Baklava” (2006) and “Kalemar” (2008), both released by SJF Records. They have also performed in many different countries throughout Europe: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Slovenia, Serbia and Bulgaria. The group is currently working on their third album.

Most of us know her voice from Fatih Akın's documentary “Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul”; Aynur was one of 20 Istanbul musicians featured in this popular film about the Istanbul's vibrant music scene. Singing Turkish and Kurdish folk songs with her signature improvisations, she is without doubt one of the most successful artists that Turkey introduced to the world music scene. Born in 1975 in the Turkish province of Tunceli, Aynur Dogan has developed into an outstanding representative of Kurdish vocal culture. Singing most of her material in Kurdish, a language that was at one point illegal to speak in public, she embodies the new spirit of self-confidence that is gaining ground in Turkey. Her career was also marked by controversy when her album “Keçe Kurdan” was temporarily censored by Turkish authorities in 2005 because it was thought the title track "encouraged women to go up into the mountains and engage in separatism". Over and above her role as a freedom-fighter, Aynur is a supremely gifted vocalist. Admired both in Turkey and Europe for her albums and extraordinary live performances, Aynur released her new album "Rewend" in April this year, promoted with a series of concerts, among which is OFF-Fest date, her first performance in Skopje.