Sonica Festival, which in 2026 will take place in November, returns with a special spring edition, featuring the live premiere of the new album Nocturnal Consolations by the Slovenian–Polish duo of multi-instrumentalist Iztok Koren and renowned guitarist Raphael Roginski, two distinguished representatives of the global neofolk movement. Joining them for this special evening is cult ambient and experimental electronic music artist Abul Mogard with his latest project, Quiet Pieces.


Raphael Roginski & Iztok Koren (PL, SI)
The first shared sounds and the idea for further collaboration between Iztok Koren and Raphael Roginski emerged when Raphael was working with the band Širom, of which Koren is a member, on a project arranging compositions by the American composer and eccentric Moondog. After several years of waiting and working on other projects, the two musicians finally embarked on their joint project last spring. Koren and Roginski are instrumentalists who seek the ancient voice of their instruments while simultaneously exploring the sound of tomorrow. With a sensitive attention to discovering space for sound, both acoustically and ideologically, they have created a polyphony of constantly shifting sound colours in their collaboration. Polyphony itself, both as an idea of encounter and shared construction, is the common denominator of their work. As enthusiasts of traditional music, they draw inspiration from it, yet their aim is to create music for contemporary audiences and a universal sonic foundation. The result is the album Nocturnal Consolations, which features their first eleven original compositions.

Abul Mogard (IT)
Abul Mogard is the alter ego of Italian musician Guido Zen, known for his evocative albums and immersive live performances. Based in Rome, he has appeared at prestigious festivals and venues, including Berlin Atonal, Poesia en Voz Alta (Mexico City), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Condeduque (Madrid), Auditorium San Fedele (Milan), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht), and the Southbank Centre (London). Commissioned by the Organ Reframed festival, Mogard composed a piece for pipe organ, electronics, and trombones, performed at Union Chapel (London) with the London Contemporary Orchestra. His work also extends to film, including soundtracks for British artist Duncan Whitley’s Kimberlin and Phoenix City (2021), the latter commissioned by the Coventry Biennial. The BBC has featured his music multiple times, with Mary Anne Hobbs praising his remixes for Carl Craig and Fovea Hex (feat. Brian Eno), listing them among her favourite tracks. Thom Yorke has also featured Mogard’s music in various mixes for NTS Radio and the BBC. Mogard’s music has found its place across a variety of creative fields, from film and television to fashion, contemporary art and advertisements. His work has been featured in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel trailer, Shane Meadows’ TV series The Gallows Pole, runway shows for Ferragamo, and campaigns for Lancôme, among other projects. Recent releases include Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close with Rafael Anton Irisarri and In uno spazio immenso with Grand River, alongside collaborations with artists such as KMRU, Colin Potter, CoH, and Cindytalk. Abul Mogard’s new album, Quiet Pieces, was released on his newly established imprint Soft Echoes in 2025.

Iztok Koren (SI)
Iztok Koren, born in the Prekmurje village of Beltinci, is a social worker by profession and a Slovenian multi-instrumentalist, who currently lives in Ljubljana. He began his musical career in 2000 with the dynamic, playful, and melancholic post-rock band ŠKM banda, continued with the loud, expressive and chaotic post-industrial noisecore duo Hexenbrutal, gained wider recognition with the imaginary and dreamy freak folk trio Širom, and, in addition to other occasional musical projects, created an intimate, minimalist, Zen solo project under his own name during the lockdown. In 2024, he founded the international trio Na tej strani nebes with fellow members from Belgium, and in 2025 a duo with Polish guitarist Raphael Roginski. Iztok also composes music for theatre, dance performances and films. He has collaborated several times with theatre director Mirjana Medojevič and dance choreographer Matjaž Farič, creating music for the silent film Sultanka ljubezni  and for the films Gora se ne premakne  and Moje poletne počitnice, directed by Petra Seliškar. As a solo performer, he explores the musical meanders of so-called freak folk music and compositions that involve playing multiple instruments simultaneously. Iztok plays the banjo, gembri, balafon, kalimba, percussion, drums, steel drum, guitar, synthesizer and morin khuur.

SOCIALS: https://www.instagram.com/koren.iztok/ 
MUSIC: https://iztokkoren.bandcamp.com/music 
VIDEOS: 
iztok koren - YouTube
Iztok Koren // KRAK

Raphael Roginski (PL)
Raphael Roginski is a guitarist, composer, improviser, cultural animator, and researcher of musical folklore. He trained in both jazz and classical traditions, later expanding his studies to include musicology and ethnomusicology. By combining different traditions, he seeks musical and performative systems that are independent of dominant popular culture. Raphael performs music from Turkish, Bedouin, African, Kurdish, Greek, Georgian, Persian, Armenian, and many other traditions, often collaborating directly with musicians who have roots in these cultures. His fascination with Kurpie folklore led to a collaboration with Genowefa Lenarczyk, a renowned folk singer and daughter of Stanisław Brzozowy. Together with the last Polish Roma musicians, he founded the group Drom. His interest in early music led to the Bach Bleach project (Bach's works on prepared guitars) and the album Plays Henry Purcell, which reinterprets Purcell through the prism of the cold wave aesthetics of the 1980s. His in-depth research into guitar techniques, classic blues musicians, and the sound of instruments from the 1950s and 1960s is reflected in projects such as Wovoka and Shy Albatross.

SOCIALS: 
https://www.instagram.com/raphael_roginski  
https://www.facebook.com/raphaelroginskimusician 
MUSIC: https://raphaelroginski.bandcamp.com 
VIDEOS: 
Raphael Rogiński – tema - YouTube
Raphael Rogiński live at The state51 Factory 

VIDEO ROGINSKI & KOREN:     
Raphael Rogiński & Iztok Koren | Wschód Kultury – Inne Brzmienia 2025

Abul Mogard (IT)
Abul Mogard is the alter ego of Italian musician Guido Zen, known for his evocative albums and immersive live performances. Based in Rome, he has appeared at prestigious festivals and venues, including Berlin Atonal, Poesia en Voz Alta (Mexico City), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Condeduque (Madrid), Auditorium San Fedele (Milan), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht), and the Southbank Centre (London). Commissioned by the Organ Reframed festival, Mogard composed a piece for pipe organ, electronics, and trombones, performed at Union Chapel (London) with the London Contemporary Orchestra. His work also extends to film, including soundtracks for British artist Duncan Whitley’s Kimberlin and Phoenix City (2021), the latter commissioned by the Coventry Biennial. The BBC has featured his music multiple times, with Mary Anne Hobbs praising his remixes for Carl Craig and Fovea Hex (feat. Brian Eno), listing them among her favourite tracks. Thom Yorke has also featured Mogard’s music in various mixes for NTS Radio and the BBC. Mogard’s music has found its place across a variety of creative fields, from film and television to fashion, contemporary art and advertisements. His work has been featured in Ridley Scott’sThe Last Duel trailer, Shane Meadows’ TV series Gallows pole, runway shows for Ferragamo, and campaigns for Lancôme, among other projects. Recent releases include Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close with Rafael Anton Irisarri and In uno spazio immenso with Grand River, alongside collaborations with artists such as KMRU, Colin Potter, CoH, and Cindytalk. Abul Mogard’s latest album, Quiet Pieces, was released on his newly established imprint Soft Echoes in May 2025.

SOCIALS: https://www.instagram.com/abulmogard 
MUSIC: https://abulmogard.bandcamp.com  
VIDEOS: Abul Mogard - YouTube

Celebrated South African percussionist Tumi Mogorosi, known for his compelling rhythms with Shabaka and The Ancestors and The Wretched, unveils his latest artistic endeavor. His third studio album, 'Thank You For Your Service,' marks a compelling evolution in his sonic journey. Following the vocal explorations of 'Project ELO' and 'Group Theory: Black Music,' this offering gracefully revisits the foundational architecture of the classic jazz quintet, yet intricately weaves in electronically manipulated vocal textures, creating a resonant throughline to his preceding works.

Featuring a formidable ensemble of UK musical luminaries – Soweto Kinch on saxophone, Ashley Henry at the piano, James Copus on trumpet, and Twm Dylan on bass – the album was captured with a palpable sense of immediacy. Recorded over two days in November 2024 at London’s vibrant cultural nexus, Total Refreshment Center, the sessions echo the legendary energy of a classic Rudy van Gelder recording.

‘Thank You For Your Service’ stands as a profound dedication to the ‘Rebel’ archetype within the Black Radical Tradition = both historical and imagined figures who committed their lives to the liberation of all people, with particular focus on the emancipation of Black communities across the diaspora. This powerful music serves as a vital and timely reminder of the enduring significance of radical action in the pursuit of universal freedom, a sentiment of profound resonance in our present moment.

Lea Ypi is an Albanian-born political theorist and Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics, and one of the most compelling voices in contemporary political thought. 

She rose to international prominence with Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, an acclaimed memoir of growing up in communist Albania, translated into more than 30 languages worldwide. 

On the occasion of the Slovenian publication of her most recent book Indignity by Mladinska knjiga, we invite you to a conversation with Lea Ypi on her work. 

In Indignity, she reconstructs the life of her grandmother Leman Ypi, tracing a journey through war, migration, love and ideological upheaval in 20th-century Europe. Blending philosophy with intimate family history, the book confronts questions of dignity, moral responsibility, and the power of political judgment. 

The conversation at Critical Cabaret with Srećko Horvat will extend beyond the book to our contemporary world and why these questions matter now. This is a rare opportunity to hear one of today’s most important thinkers in conversation.

Running time: 90 min

José Portillo, piano; Glauco Sölter, bass guitar; Gabriel Moraes, guitar; Matheus Jardim, drums

The Brazilian trio is led by Glauco Sölter, a renowned São Paulo-based bass player. Throughout his long career, Sölter has built up an impressive roster of collaborations, most notably the close partnership with trumpeter Raul de Souza, as well as musicians such as João Bosco, Airto Moreira, Ron Carter, Richard Bona, and many others.

Sölter has released five albums as a composer and bandleader. Making his Slovenian debut, he will be accompanied by guitarist Gabriel Moraes and drummer Matheus Jardim, artists whose energy, sense of rhythm, and musicality have been thrilling audiences around the world. Jardim played last year's Jazz Festival Ljubljana as drummer with the hornist Fanni Posa Quartet. José Portillo, one of the most revered pianists of the new generation of Cuban jazz, brings lyricism, rich harmonic textures, and deep cultural roots to the band. A wonderfully versatile performer, Portillo has performed in classical music venues and worked with legendary figures such as Omara Portuondo, Bobby Carcassés, and Orlando "Maraca" Valle.

The Cankarjevi torki concert, the highlight of their Slovenian tour, is dedicated to a combination of original compositions, improvisation, and the musical traditions of two cultures – Brazilian and Cuban.

The closing event of this year’s Fabula festival will feature a theoretical-humanistic focus, inviting reflection on history, responsibility, and the role of the individual. Philippe Sands, eminent lawyer, human rights advocate, and author, will present his landmark book Return to Lemberg.

Return to Lemberg intertwines legal history, personal narrative, and literary inquiry. Sands traces his family’s hidden past, uncovering connections between his grandfather and two pivotal 20th-century jurists, following the fate of the two men who shaped the notion of genocide and crimes against humanity, Raphael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht. Both lived in Lemberg, now Lviv in Ukraine, long a contested crossroads of Central Europe, where enduring legal concepts of justice, memory, and responsibility first took shape.

Sands blends the personal and the global, weaving family history with the evolution of international law, while narratives of loss and exile converge with the Nuremberg Trials. The book is both a historical account and a meditation on how crime, guilt, and memory are transmitted across generations, and how legal principles emerge from human experience.

A widely published author and commentator, Philippe Sands studied law at the University of Cambridge. He is Professor of Public Understanding of Law at University College London, and has appeared as counsel and advocate before international courts and tribunals. Sands served as president of English PEN. Return to Lemberg has won the Baillie Gifford Prize, the Jewish Quarterly Prize, the Montaigne Prize, and was named Guardian Historical Book of the Year.

The discussion, led by Dr. Vasilka Sancin, will explore how personal histories shape our understanding of law, and how remembering crimes can create ethical obligations for the future. The event will be held in English with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Join for an evening reflecting on how individual stories shape our collective world – and why understanding the past is vital for a responsible future.
 

Festival Fabula, in collaboration with the academic publisher Analecta and Cankarjev dom, welcomes renowned psychoanalyst and cultural thinker Darian Leader, presenting his book Stealing the Mona Lisa: What Art Stops Us from Seeing.

When Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, countless people flocked to see the empty space where it had once been on display. From this paradox, Leader begins by asking if "the story of the 'Mona Lisa's' disappearance can tell us something about art and why we look at it." He is fascinated by the fact that the painting's absence drew crowds, and asks, "might this give us a clue as to why we look at visual art? Are we looking for something that we have lost?"

Taking this story as his starting point, Darian Leader explores the psychology of looking at paintings and sculpture. He combines anecdote, observation, and analysis with examples taken from classical and contemporary art. He uses the insights of Freud and primarily Lacan to offer a range of amusing but often striking accounts of why we look at art, the importance of the gaze and the look.

Leader is the author of numerous influential books on psychoanalysis, culture, and social critique, translated into multiple languages. He received the Mercier Chair at the University of Louvain, was President of the College of Psychoanalysts, a Trustee of the Freud Museum, and Honorary Visiting Professor in Psychoanalysis at Roehampton. Known for his clear, essayistic style, he makes complex theoretical ideas accessible without sacrificing intellectual rigour.

The discussion will be hosted by Slavoj Žižek, the event will be conducted in English with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Join for an evening exploring the interplay of the visible and invisible, the gaze that shapes our experience of art, and how art reveals both the world and the limits of our perception.

Please be advised that Sergio Ramírez, the chief guest at this year’s Fabula Festival, will unfortunately be unable to attend the event in person on Monday, 16 March, due to health reasons. He will, however, join us remotely via live streaming.


Novelist, essayist, and Cervantes Prize winner (2017), Sergio Ramírez is one of Latin America’s most celebrated writers and intellectuals. Formerly Vice President of Nicaragua, Ramírez became a leading voice in Nicaraguan exile after the government stripped him of citizenship following the violent crackdown on protests in 2018; he is currently based in Spain.

The evening will focus on his novel Tongolele No Sabía Bailar (Tongolele Couldn’t Dance, 2021), a political noir and the third instalment in his Nicaraguan crime trilogy featuring Inspector Dolores Morales. Set in present-day Nicaragua under repressive rule, the story follows Morales, now a private detective, navigating corruption, violence, and mass protests. The novel blends crime fiction with sharp political analysis, exploring responsibility, memory, and the individual’s role in times of fear and censorship.

In Tongolele No Sabía Bailar the crime story becomes a chronicle of the present, with the detective serving as a guide through a world where private lives collide with systemic violence – and where literature assumes the role of a public voice.

Moderated by Carlos Pascual, with readings by Peter Podgoršek, the event will be held in Spanish with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Join us for a literary evening where a gripping narrative transforms into political testimony, and literature becomes an act of freedom and civic courage.
 

Jakuta Alikavazovic is one of the most original contemporary French writers of Bosnian-Montenegrin descent. Her award-winning work (Goncourt, Médicis) blends lyricism, intimate testimony, and precise linguistic architecture, exploring memory, exile, family bonds, and the invisible forces shaping our inner lives.

The event will focus on her latest novel, Au grand jamais (2025), a lyrical, subtly baroque story of a mother and daughter, tracing what is transmitted through silence, omissions, and unspoken family history. The novel weaves private experience with the collective history of emigration from the former Yugoslavia, offering a portrait of a strong and elusive woman and reflecting on how memory lingers not only in words but also in silent presence.

The evening will include readings from the French original with Slovenian translation, followed by a discussion on memory, intimacy, and Alikavazovic’s distinctive blending of lyricism and narrative precision.

Moderated by Katarina Marinčič, with readings by Iva Babić, the event will be held in English with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.
Join us for an event that explores how literature opens spaces of remembrance and creates new forms of connection between silence and speech.
 

Jonas Lüscher is one of the most prominent contemporary Swiss-German writers and essayists. Renowned for his intellectual reflection, social commentary, and literary virtuosity, Lüscher’s work sits at the intersection of literature, philosophy, and science, exploring fundamental questions of the modern world.

The evening will focus on his recent novel Verzauberte Vorbestimmung (Enchanted Predestination, 2025), a literary-essayistic masterpiece. Composed of five seemingly independent yet deeply interconnected chapters, the book traces the relationships between humans, technology, biology, and history. Its narrator travels across time and space – from World War I to futuristic visions of the 21st century, from concentration camps to Egyptian androids contemplating immortality – raising questions of free will, responsibility, and ethics in a world increasingly shaped by technological, biological, and economic determinism.

Exploring Lüscher’s distinctive blend of novel, essay, and philosophical reflection, the talk will examine how literature today can foster critical thinking, ethical reflection, and humanism. 

The talk will be moderated by Tanja Petrič, with selected readings by Peter Alojz Marn. The event will be held in German with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Probing the boundaries between fate and choice, between humans and systems through the prism of literature, the event will engage with questions essential to understanding our time.
 

The Ljubljana opening of the Literature of the World Festival – Fabula will feature Colum McCann, one of the most prominent contemporary Irish writers, known for his lyrical and deeply compassionate style. Born in Dublin and now based in New York, McCann weaves fact and fiction, reinterpreting real-life stories and historical events with imaginative storytelling.

The evening will focus on his acclaimed novel Apeirogon (2020), longlisted for the Booker Prize. Inspired by the real-life story of two fathers, Israeli Rami Elhanan and Palestinian Basam Aramin, the book follows their journey from devastating personal loss toward dialogue, friendship, and public testimony for peace. Composed of 1001 short fragments, the novel explores multiple perspectives on pain, loss, and humanity, with Apeirogon – a geometric figure with infinite sides – serving as the central metaphor.

The event will feature readings of selected passages and a conversation on the interplay between testimony and fiction, ethical storytelling, and literature’s power to create spaces for human encounter in a divided world.

The event will be held in English with simultaneous translation into Slovenian, with readings of selected excerpts by Muhamed Kulauzović.