By Keith Walsh
For many of us in the United States, the knowledge in 2016 that our newly minted first lady, Melania Trump, was from Slovenia, was also the beginning of what little info we might acquire about that country in Eastern Europe. Around the same time, my blogs Synthbeat.com and Punkrockbeat.com had the chance to find out about a some of the rock music coming from Slovenia, starting with the scene around the capital of Ljubljana, and the electronic bands Karmakoma and Kontradikshn and the punk band Suzi soprano (lowercase intentional).
These artists have continued to push the envelope musically, and now Kontradikshn, an electronic rock trio, have defied expectations with a live performance with the Glasbena Šola Symphonic Orchestra of Krško. The video below gives a hint of the magnificence of the set these two artistic entities created together, though this version of “On Demand” from the 2023 album Ahead Or Ourselves is too brief. Not to worry, Kontradikshn’s Petar Stojanović told me that the entire eleven song set will be released soon, both in video and audio formats.
“It was a majestic experience to see and hear 75 members of a symphonic orchestra playing our songs and dribble our lines.”
Petar Stojanović of Kontradikshn
Popular Culture Beat: How did this collaboration come to be? Who initiated it?
Petar Stojanović: The collaboration come to be as Kontradikshn was invited to play on legendary Slovenian radio show “IZŠTEKANI”,which in translation would mean “UNPLUGGED”. This show is on National radio of Slovenia and on digital video streaming. For this occasion we thought that we wouldn’t unplug ourselves but rather invite full symphonic orchestra for a collab. This means 75 new members on the stage. 🙂 In this case we invited Symphonic Orchestra of Music School Krško and they did a terrific job.
Popular Culture Beat: How many songs did you record, how many minutes and when will you release it? What formats?
Petar Stojanović: We played 3 shows so far. One on National Radio in show “IZŠTEKANI”, another from this video in Cultural House Krško,where we sold out all the seats (500 visitors) and the third show was on the Castle of Brežice which was also almost sold out.
(Krško and Brežice are nearby towns – our hometowns). We hope we will able to offer this story also to some other stages later this year. So we played and recorded 11 songs. All the songs are originally from Kontradikshn but the arrangements for the orchestra were written by Dejan Učakar, who is also the bassoonist in the orchestra. It’s around 50 minutes of recording and we are planning to release it in September, on digital platforms as well as full concert video.
Popular Culture Beat: What was preparation like, how many hours of preparation was required?
Petar Stojanović: Preparations were long. In the beginning of this year, the orchestra started to practice this repetoire on their own, then we joined in late February. We had around 10 rehearsals all together (every weekend) and additional intensive weekend together by the Slovenian coast, where we rehearsed for 3 days in a row. So 3 rehearsals for 3 hours per day. Which is 9 hours of rehearsals per day. 🙂 It was intense and yet it was very nice as we got to know each other and we really connected as one giant family.
Popular Culture Beat: What special adaptations to your approach musically did you three members of Kontradikshn make?
Petar Stojanović: A bit of special adaptation was required but mostly for our drummer Anže. He had to learn to play a bit more soft than he is used to. But even then, in the end, he was able to play punchier, because we had good technical conditions.
Popular Culture Beat: Please tell me anything else about the experience.
Petar Stojanović: It was a majestic experience to see and hear 75 members of a symphonic orchestra playing our songs and dribble our lines. We are extremely honored that we played with them. And we are also honored that we are the only rock band from our region that played their songs with full symphonic orchestra. We really hope we would be able to get additional gigs in this configuration. We had standing ovations and this thing really sounds great live. 🙂
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“Reframing” Review On Synthbeat
“Ahead Of Ourselves” Review on Synthbeat
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