Druga godba 2026: iT's Another Crying Game

Irena Z. Tomažin (vocals, shruti box, tape recorder) / Andraž Mazi (guitar) / Jana Beltran (guitar, vocals) / Vesna Godler (bass, vocals) / Samo Kutin (hurdy-gurdy, vocals) / Jure Vlahovič (sound)

This year’s festival will open with the latest project by one of Slovenia’s most versatile contemporary artists. Irena Z. Tomažin, an experimental vocalist, dancer and choreographer with an impressive list of top European collaborators beneath her name, has a deep connection with Druga Godba. She made her first appearance in 2012 and her second in 2019, both as a solo artist. This time round, she comes armed with back-up (the ‘Another Crying Band’ no less) and an album that pretty much swept the album-of-the-year board with domestic critics last year.

Another Crying Game is both an extension and a departure from her previous work. As always with Irena, it’s a complete and self-contained work of original authorship, and a glimpse at the latest turn in a career of restless vocal, lyrical and sonic exploration; it’s also a release of tension, a more straightforward but still finely detailed achievement of singing, songwriting and ensemble playing and, in the songs sung in English in particular, a reckoning with contemporary experimental folk. We can’t wait to see iT’s Another Crying Game take the stage as a quintet in what will be a perfect start to the festival.

Co-produced by Druga Godba and Cankarjev dom.