Against the backdrop of Slovakia’s terrifying socio-political turmoil, this documentary radio piece explores Bratislava’s vibrant and courageous independent music and cultural scene and some of the community spaces in which it develops. Now they are facing their biggest challenge, to keep it alive and kicking.

We’ve been there (for the bad parts mostly), and we are still stuck there.

From Skopje to Bratislava, with love.

…

Recorded and edited by Gjorgji Janevski (summer 2024)
Additional interviews and recordings by Vid Bešter (Radio Študent)

Voices: Jonáš Gruska, Matúš Kobolka, Adela Mede, Poli, Daniel Vadas, Janneke Van Der Putten, Oliver from the garages, Olja Triaška Stefanović, Rozalia Vlaskova, Tomaš Hučko.

Music excerpts from Adela Mede, Bolka, Jonáš Gruska, Fissures, Patrick Balthrop, Rrrr

The publication of this article is part of PERSPECTIVES – the new label for independent, constructive, multiperspective journalism. The project PERSPECTIVES is being implemented by seven editorial teams from Central Eastern Europe under the leadership of the Goethe-Institut. The author of this article participated in the PERSPECTIVES Journalists-in-Residence Programme at the Goethe-Institut Bratislava.

“The Whole World Stopped…” is a collaborative compilation of field recordings, a patchwork of making music and narrating, underedited ad hoc experiment, and also a celebration of friendship, a soundscape where two friends meet—Joana and Stefan, both of them colleagues at Kanal 103.

Joana is a multi-instrumentalist, though her main focus is classical guitar. She does use both classical and electric guitar throughout the recording, as well as bontempi electro-acoustic keyboard and goblet drum. Three minutes into this experimental piece, you can hear Stefan’s voice, first telling about a street scene he witnessed downtown Skopje, then reading a poem from Elizabeth Bishop (“At the Fishhouses”) and a short story from Franz Kafka (“Before the Law”). Finally, in the conclusion, a fusion of washing machine centrifuge and a mandola played with a violin bow.

The work is an undisguised communication between music and storytelling, scarcely premeditated, if at all. Most of it is recorded at Partizan Print, a studio of independent artists in Skopje, and very good friends and collaborators with Kanal 103.

Created by Joana Risteska, classic guitar master and multi-instrumentalist, and Stefan Alijevikj, fiction writer and sound seeker. You can follow their radio shows on Kanal 103 Sunday and Tuesday evenings respectively.

Greatest Hits by Elektro Kultura

Elektro Kultura is the solo project by Vladimir Muratovski Divo – a punk and social poet hailing from the streets of Skopje, Macedonia.

On Skopje’s Liberation Day (13.11.2022), he had his second, long awaited live performance at Kanal 103 radio. After he finished his repertoire, the packed crowd in the studio wanted for more. He briefly answered: “Real punks don’t do encore”.

This is the slightly edited recording of our little off programme afterparty.

https://elektrokultura.bandcamp.com/

The episode is an audio recording of the performance “Confutatis – What are the heroes made of?”, premiered on 28.10.2022 in Prishtina, Kosovo, as part of the  Manifesta 14, the European Nomadic Biennial. It’s been slightly edited for the purposes of the radia.fm format.

“Why do some people become heroes and others not? What kind of shining lights do we need, and of what might they be made? Skopje-based artist Velimir Zernovski joins forces with the Physical Performative Theater ensemble to explore these and other questions around the politics of power, marginalization and belonging. Instigated by Biljana Dimitrova, the performance enacts rituals of mourning for the living beings we have lost and are losing, many of them through neglect.”

“Confutatis – what are heroes made of?” is a performance by Velimir Zernovski in collaboration with Kolektiv Veternica & Trisomija 21, both from Skopje.

Music by Joana Risteska & Filip Mitrov, based on the motifs of the Macedonian traditional folk song “I Was Born With Pain” (So maki sum se rodila).

Photo by Jelena Belikj

Recorded and edited by Gjorgji Janevski

In loving memory of Filip Mitrov

The episode consists of an excerpt from the bootleg recording of Shentov, Simitchiev, Lukanov’s performance at the Museum Of Contemporary Art Skopje from July 2022. This was the second performance of the drone trio outside of their native Bulgaria (the first one was a day earlier at the Macedonian radio Kanal 103). The performance took place on the museum patio, with parts of Skopje and the sun setting behind the mountains. 

It was part of the Amek Collective & Kontingent Records label showcase organized by KRIK – festival of critical culture in Skopje.  

https://amekcollective.bandcamp.com/

https://kontingentrecords.bandcamp.com/

The program documents the first ever performance of the first Inclusive City Choir, founded by Trisomie 21 – Association for Support of People with Down Syndrome and created in collaboration and mentorship of the Kolektiv Veternica. It took place in Skopje’s City Walls residential area, on 22.10.2021.

Mario, Stefan, Ena, Matej, Filip, Ilina, Oli, Niki, Beti, Dare and Kosta are performing famous Macedonian folk and pop songs. 

At one point a neighbor yells from a balcony: “Stop it, you are disturbing! Go to the National TV to do this.” 

Hopefully, one day, they will.

Recorded and edited by Gjorgji Janevski

Photo by Jelena Belikj

Papradiste

More than a year ago he moved from his native town of Bitola to the mountain village of Papradiste. He made his home there as a host of the mountain hut, a former school building in a now almost abandoned village.

This audio collage is a heartfelt homage to the beautiful village of Papradiste:

the winter loneliness, the birds in early springtime, unexpected encounters and spontaneous music collaborations… in the heart of the mountain different worlds coexist in harmony.

Mnemonic45 (Goce Gligurovski) is a musician and sound artist from Macedonia.

https://mnemonic45.bandcamp.com/

Title: Organizized

“Organizized” is a fragmented diary of radio pleasures in times of pandemic.
Music and friendship when we needed them the most, improvised and recorded at the premises of Kanal 103 radio in Skopje.

In honor of 1st of May 2021, when the only squat in town turns 30.

Big love to all the beautiful people involved.
Recorded and edited by Gjorgji Janevski
Photo by Jelena Belikj

“Skopje 26th of July” is a radio piece dedicated to the victims 1963 Skopje earthquake. It contains sounds from documentaries about the city made just before and after the earthquake, news from the first Macedonian radio – Radio Skopje and music from the period.

Authors: Joana Risteska, Mihail Dimitrov

Joana and Mihail are from Kanal 103. Risteska is a guitarist, Dimitrov is a film editor.

Sound artists and field recordist Toni Dimitrov was working on several field recordings pieces inspired by cities during his trips. After the sketches from Athens, Belgrade, Ioannina, Bucharest, here is a new piece, dedicated to a city, produced from short sound sketches. This time the sketches are recorded in Milan during his stay for the Radio City festival in spring 2018. The recordings from the Duomo metro station, Sforza Castle, Orto Botanico di Brera, Santa Maria del Carmine church, escalators, bars, parks, etc., interweave subtly, blurring the line between field recording and sound art.