The 2024 Noches de Tablao contemporary flamenco series begins with an event that represents an important rarity in Slovenian flamenco creativity. An important development on the local music scene and a fresh wind of innovation is the release of the album Ventana Abierta that joins outstanding Slovenian and Spanish artists who have also featured in the series over the recent years. The album gives prominence to nationally and internationally established virtuosos, who, under the guidance of the creative leader Izidor Erazem Grafenauer, invite the listeners to enter the world of original flamenco music reflecting influences of world and classical music, as well as jazz.

The music is based on flamenco rhythms and music forms, also called palos flamenco, mixed with jazz, world music and classical music influences, each piece reflecting the composer’s experience of the world around him, his years-long dedication to music-making and detailed artistic research. Blending traditional elements and contemporary musical approaches, Ventana Abierta constitutes a fresh, distinctly expressive but respectful view on this masterful music genre, thus also creating new possibilities and perspectives for the development of flamenco in Slovenia and beyond. Its innovativeness opens up a window of opportunity for new generations whilst promoting diversity and the exchange of ideas.
 

In addition to the project leader Grafenauer, the collaborators on the album include Ana Mezgec, Bernardo Brizani, Jošt Lampret, leading Spanish artists Jose Manuel Ruiz Motos “Bandolero” and Enrique Rodriguez “Enriquito” and the producer Paco Ortega. Noemi Humanes García and Imer Saj Brizani feature as guest vocalists. The album was recorded at the Musigram Studio in Madrid in October 2023 and released this year on the Slovenian label Celinka.

A special guest at the album launch will be José Montaña. The Madrid-born musician ranks among today’s leading percussionists working in flamenco and Afro-Cuban music. He gained renown for his collaboration with world-famous flamenco dancers such as Nino de los Reyes, Juan de Juan and Antonio Canales, and was influenced by some of flamenco's most acclaimed percussionists, including Israel Suárez “El Piraña”, Lucky Losada, Ramon Porrina and Sabu Porrina. His Latino music mentors and colleagues include Miguel Angá Díaz, Pepe Espinosa, Pedrito Martínez, Changuito, Tata Güines, Giovanni Hidalgo and others. His greatest source of inspiration is the multi-instrumentalist and bassist Alain Pérez, who is also his mentor. José Montaña has played with some of the world's most celebrated musicians, including Alain Pérez, Richard Bona, Alfredo Rodríguez, Jorge Pardo, Chano Dominguez, Antonio Rey, Antonio Serrano, Javier Limon, Jerry Gonzalez, Montse Cortés, Caramelo de Cuba, Israel Fernández, and Marina (Ojos de Brujo). An artist of brands La Rosa Percussion, Istanbul Mehmet Cymbals & Majidrums, he leads workshops and performs all over the world.

The project includes one of Slovenia’s most prominent flamenco dancers, choreographer and musician Urška Centa. Her first appearance after the successful Mexican tour with the band Sentido Project promises an exhilarating percussive experience and the authenticity of a dance body living through every gesture and movement. Urška Centa articulates a unique artistic vision that blurs the boundaries between flamenco and contemporary dance and challenges the conventions of choreography. Her long-standing collaboration with Grafenauer has crystallised into a refined, virtuoso dialogue between the dancer and musician and a visceral stage exploration of the aesthetics of different worlds.

oleg njega bo nastopila ena vodilnih plesalk flamenka v Sloveniji, koreografinja in glasbena ustvarjalka Urška Centa. Njen prvi nastop po vrnitvi z uspešne turneje v Mehiki z zasedbo Sentido Project obeta tolkalsko doživetje in avtentičnost plesnega telesa, ki živi skozi vsako svojo gesto in gib. Urška Centa prinaša s seboj edinstveno umetniško vizijo, ki briše meje med elementi flamenka in sodobnega plesa ter koreografsko izziva pravila. Njeno dolgoletno sodelovanje z Grafenauerjem se mojstri v prefinjen in virtuozen dialog plesalke in glasbenika ter doživeto odrsko popotovanje po estetiki različnih svetov.

The cycle is supported by the City of Ljubljana.

The closing night of the 16th edition of the SONICA with the ambassador of contemporary ambient music, Kenyan artist KMRU – an intoxicating sonic massage for all the senses!

The evening will also feature a performance by the trans-genre phenomenon NZE NZE, one of the most impressive French electronic music projects of the moment, whose explosive "electronic post-punk" expression weaves together the warrior songs of the Fang, a Bantu people based in Central Africa, hypnotic polyrhythms, industrial textures and dub echoes.

The opening act of the night will be the premiere of the SONICA Residency 2024, an exclusive presentation of a new collaborative project by American composer Bridget Ferrill, Slovenian harpist rouge-ah and Slovenian VJ Pixel Bambi. 
 

KMRU (KE) 
For Joseph Kamaru (KMRU) a Nairobi-born Berlin-based sound artist, sound is a sensorial medium through which social, material and conceptual interpretations are manifested in his works. KMRU carries with him a repository of listening experiences from Nairobi and beyond expanding his sonic practices, bringing an awareness of surroundings through creative compositions, installations and performances. He has earned international acclaim from his performances and releases , at the Barbican, Berlin Atonal, Présences électronique, and releases on Editions Mego, Subtext, Seil Records. KMRU has carved out a serious and definitive space on the list of essential authors in ambient experimental music - one of the most prolific and innovative artists in his field.
 

NZE NZE (FR)
Possessed rhythms and guttural voice. NZE NZE was born in 2021 following a residency at Red Bull's Paris studio. Bringing together the three heads behind Sacred Lodge and the duo UVB76, the project crosses haunted chants, surgical production and dusk atmospheres. At the core we find the Fang warriors (Central Africa) and their stories. All around, sounds ironed through modular patches and effects pedals. At the end, a music that draws on industrial music, dub and post-punk.

Bridget Ferrill, rouge-ah & Pixel Bambi: SONICA Residency Premiere (USA, DE, SI)
SONICA presents an exclusive residency and premiere of new material! The 2024 residency features American experimental composer Bridgett Ferrill, a SHAPE+ platform protégé for 2023/24, internationally acclaimed Slovenian harpist and artist rouge-ah, who already performed at SONICA 2023, and up-and-coming Slovenian designer and VJ Pixel Bambi, also known as a member of the mala roza muca project. Expect a complex yet playful audiovisual adventure, expanded between hyper-visualisations, experimental electronics, augmented sounds, ambiental harmonies, deconstructed pop tunes and noise.

SONICA 2024: Glocalisation
18 ¦ 20 April 2024
Ljubljana, Slovenia

The 16th edition of the international festival of electronic music and transitory art SONICA brings a diverse selection of artists who have made a significant impact on the field of electronic and experimental music in recent years. 

Co-produced by MoTA - Museum of Transitory Art, SONICA Festival Institute and Cankarjev dom. Supported by Ministry of culture RS and Municipality of Ljubljana - Department of Culture. Bridget Ferrill and NZE NZE  are part of the SHAPE+ platform co-funded by Creative Europe. 
www.sonica.si 

The European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), an annual initiative to recognise the best emerging fiction writers in Europe, aims at highlighting the rich fabric of European literary talent and the various stories deriving from its many cultures. The award not only celebrates creativity and the power of storytelling, but is also an important catalyst for the authors' international promotion. The round table discussion participants include Czech writer Lucie Faulerová, Fabula featured author and winner of the EU Prize for Literature, and several Slovenian authors, previous EUPL winners (Gabriela Babnik, Jasmin B. Frelih, Anja Mugerli…). 

The EU Prize for Literature: A Recipe for International Success? round-table will be hosted by Dražen Dragičević. Discussion topics: How has EUPL influenced the authors’ careers? What are the challenges in overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers? What are the writers’ views on the evolving European literary landscape?

The European Union Prize for Literature, supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, is an annual initiative recognising the finest up-and-coming fiction writers in Europe, highlighting diversity in the European Union and its associated countries. The Prize aims to put the spotlight on the creativity and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature in the field of fiction, to promote the circulation of literature within Europe and to encourage greater interest in non-national literary works. The works of the selected winners are promoted in the hope of reaching a wider and international audience, and to address readers beyond national and linguistic borders. The Prize is financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, which aims to achieve three main goals: promote cross-border mobility of those working in the cultural sector, encourage the transnational circulation of cultural and artistic output and foster intercultural dialogue.

The border zone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece is an uncharted, little-known corner of Europe. The untamed nature acts as silent witness to the turbulent history of these places, from Roman times, when Ovid was banished to deepest Romania, to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Cold War, and the latest wave of refugees fleeing conflict through the forests of Strandzha. Crisscrossed by ancient Roman roads, this edge of Europe is a region that has been shaped by the successive forces of history; in this same area, the mountaintops – dotted with monasteries – served as tombs for Thracian kings, and were home to psychic healers and Europe's last fire-worshippers. As well as moving between different worlds, between continents and political systems, the author explores the boundaries between the real and the intuitive, between the conscious and the unconscious. Exploring this enigmatic landscape in the company of smugglers, treasure hunters, forest guards, inhabitants of disappearing villages and refugees, Kassabova traces the physical and psychological borders that criss-cross the region’s villages and mountains, and goes in search of the local stories that will unlock its secrets. 

The novel has been translated by Petra Meterc.

Kapka Kassabova (1973) spent her childhood in Bulgaria, and emigrated with her family to New Zealand in 1992. She now lives in Scotland. Her works explore the relationships between places and people, geopolitical margins, cultural junctions and crossroads, most often in the Balkans. An award-winning author of nine prose works, Kassabova has published four collections of poetry and is a regular contributor to various newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian and The Times Literary Supplement. Her works have been translated into more than twenty languages. 

The talk will take place in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

The collection of essays by Maria Stepanova, one of the most powerful and distinctive voices of Russia’s first post-Soviet literary generation, consists of carefully selected texts covering two decades of work. A poet, prose writer and pioneer of independent journalism, Stepanova’s engaged writing blends formal innovation with a keen ear for linguistic nuances, giving a deep insight into key political events and social dilemmas of her time. In her essays, Stepanova explores historic upheavals, examining times of conflict and the impact they have on language, with a special focus on the crisis and political unrest in Ukraine. Interlacing personal and collective memory, this selection of essays, compiled in close collaboration with the author, focuses on the issues of loss, identity and the distortion of truth that has always accompanied war. Stepanova also reflects on the works of great literary figures, including W. G. Sebald, Marina Tsvetaeva and Susan Sontag, bringing a fresh, unique perspective to documenting social changes and wreckage. Employing a transformative literary technique, the author discusses well-known concepts from a new, unique angle, challenging us to alter our perception and broaden our understanding. 

The essay collection has been translated into Slovenian by a group of translators, the author’s selection was made exclusively for the Fabula Festival.

Born in Moscow in 1972, Maria Stepanova is a Russian poet, novelist and journalist of Jewish descent. She is the author of twelve collections of poetry and two books of essays. Her literary works have won numerous Russian and international awards, including the 1993 Znamja Literary Journal Award, 2005 Pasternak Prize and the Andrei Bely Prize, the 2006 Hubert Burda Prize, and the 2023 Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding. Her poems have been translated into many languages. Stepanova is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of a major platform for independent journalism, COLTA.RU. She lives in exile in Germany.

The talk will take place in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Winner of the prestigious Serbian NIN Award for best novel in the Serbian language, the book Children by the distinguished poet and playwright Milena Marković is a bold literary hybrid, blending poetry and prose. An autobiographical story told in verse, without punctuation marks or capital letters, using rhythm and other poetic devices, takes us on an elated voyage through the past, punctuated by the search for self and facing up to an extended but alienated family and historical chaos. At the same time, Marković’s confessional writing – both extremely direct, robust, at times painfully sincere, immersed in dirty reality and sensitively lyrical – takes on a mythical aura. This kind of storytelling, however, opens up crucial questions about the position of the traditional family and the status of children in the modern world, specifically in the Balkans, an area of never-ending turmoil. In author’s signature style, anger, injustice, cynicism, vulgarity and regret subtly shine through the dust-covered poetic beauty of crystallised memories.  

The novel has been translated by Muanis Sinanović.

Milena Marković (1974) is a Serbian poet, director, screenwriter and university professor. In 2010, her book Ptičje oko na tarabi received the prestigious Biljana Jovanović and Đura Jakšić poetry awards.  She is not only one of Serbia's most important playwrights whose plays are also performed internationally (including Wiener Festwochen, Steirischer Herbst, Schauspielhaus Zürich), but also one of the most important artists of her generation. Her award-winning plays (including the Miloš Crnjanski Award (2007) for 3 drame) have enjoyed great commercial success on the international circuit. She wrote the screenplays for the films directed by Oleg Novković: Sutra Ujutru (2007), Beli beli svet (2009) and Otadžbina (2015). She is an associate professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, Department of Dramaturgy. 

The talk will take place in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

A woman in her twenties has to come to terms with a devastating family tragedy. How can she survive after her sister commits suicide? This poetic literary work wraps a traumatic subject into gentle humour. To the rhythmic rumble of the train, scenes from the past reappear to the young protagonist with a wounded body and soul, and these tragic, as well as occasionally comic fragments, are gradually pieced together to form the story of her family. While travelling on the subway, Marie consider her own chaotic life, relationships, reminiscing about the happy moments spent with her sister. She blames herself for her sister's death. Despite the bitter subject, the tragedy and depression, the novel contains a hefty dose of subtle humour and irony. The author's characteristic flow of language and the extraordinary clarity of style make for a pleasant read.

The novel has been translated by Anja Simič.

Lucie Faulerová (1989) is a Czech writer editor and screenwriter. She graduated in Czech Studies from Palacký University in Olomouc. Her debut novel, Lapači prachu (Dust Catchers), was published in 2017 and nominated for the Magnesia Litera Prize and the Jiří Orten Prize for Young Authors. She also works with the Czech conceptual artist Kateřina Šedá – for example, on the book Brnox– A Guide to Brno’s Bronx, which won the 2017 Magnesia Litera Prize in the journalism category. Faulerová’s second novel, Smrtholka (Deathmaiden), came out in 2020 and won the 2021 European Union Prize for Literature.

The talk will take place in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.
 

The novel's young narrator and protagonist lives in an indefinite time, an indefinite place and in unspecified circumstances. In fact, we do not even know his name. The entire novel is pervaded by a sense of uncertainty. The readers find themselves in a post-apocalyptic world in which two powerful forces interact: the struggle for survival and forbidden love. In a near future devastated by war and cataclysm, a young man and his mother cling to survival at the edge of a forest. The young man spends his days helping his mother, who is traumatized from her experience working in the ominous Factory, and exchanging letters with his lover, Boris. The only option for survival (and love) is leaving everything behind. Napalm in the Heart is an allegory of different forms of repression that shape people’s lives and humanity at large, as well as of the fact that there's a thin line between victim and executioner. 

The novel has been translated by Veronika Rot.

Pol Guasch (1997) is a Catalan poet and writer. The holder of a Master's Degree in Contemporary Literature, Culture, and Theory from King's College London, he is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Barcelona. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Tanta grana and La part del foc, and two novels. He has also been a writer-in-residence in Florence and New York. His debut novel Napalm al cor, which has been translated into Spanish, English, French, Italian and German, won the 2021 Anagrama Novel Prize, making Guasch (aged 24) the youngest winner in the prize's history.
The talk will take place in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.
 

The book Beautiful Strangers experiments with autofiction, following the writer Cărtărescu and his adventures. As the author wrote in the introduction, the stories are “based on real events and persons, but there is much more fiction in them than it might seem at first glance.” A young poet’s odyssey is occasioned in the story Anthrax. During his first-ever reading in the Romanian provinces, he gets a letter from Denmark whose envelope has allegedly been dosed with anthrax. In the second story, Beautiful Strangers, twelve beautiful strangers, a curious “writers’ dozen”, set out to conquer France over the course of a two-week trip. In these short stories, Mircea Cărtărescu sets himself up as the protagonist and delightfully (self-) ironic chronicler of this whimsical tourist party’s exploits. Full of humour, satire and grotesqueness, his works blur the boundaries between fantasy and ordinariness, supernatural and natural, between the objective and subjective. Cărtărescu creates his own encyclopaedia of reality and dreamscape, fusing them with biographicalism, self-referentiality and magical realism. 

The book has been translated by Aleš Mustar.

Writer, poet, essayist, university professor, literary critic and publicist Mircea Cărtărescu (1956) is Romania's most important living author, also nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He has published over 30 volumes so far, translated in 25 languages – among them novels like Blinding, Solenoid and The Levant, short stories, essays and books of poetry. He was awarded with several international prizes for literature, including the Vilenica Prize.

The talk will take place in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.
The event is part of Reading Culture, a programme co-financed by the Slovenian Book Agency.
 

Danyèl Waro (RE) is the best-known proponent of maloya, the distinctive music and dance form native to L’Ile de la Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Maloya, whose rhythms derive from the song-making of enslaved workers on the island’s plantations, was once officially banned – and Waro is more than happy to keep its links with political justice alive. What we have here, though, is a typically Druga Godba encounter: the poet of maloya versus Austria’s leading jazz trio. An evening of intrigue, lashings of artistic charisma and miles of inexhaustible energy awaits. 

Danyèl Waro: main vocals, kayanm – Mickael Talpot: rouler, vocals – Bino Waro: sati, pikèr, voice – Laurent Dalleau: congas, voice – Gilles Lauret: triangle, voice – Lukas Kranzelbinder: double bass – Mario Rom: trumpet – Herbert Pirker: drums

Co-produced by Cankarjev dom and Zavod Druga Godba.