Stracho Temelkovski’s first album The Sound Braka (Brothers of Sound) transpires jazz, the Balkans, the Mediterranean and the East, near and far, even the suburbs of Buenos Aires. The album is the result of a real maturing process taking its current form during a residency at the Lyon Opera in May 2018 where Stracho invited a band of virtuoso “brothers of sound” to create a unique repertoire together.
Bassist & beatboxer Stracho Temelkovski was born in Grenoble, France in 1978 of Macedonian heritage. At a young age he taught himself to play first electric guitar, then bass, percussion, sampling and programming. He was fascinated by the improvisations of jazz soloists from Balkan brass bands, and his first group, founded when he was 15, mixed jazz-funk and dub with distinctive Eastern European sounds.
In 2003, Stracho Temelkovski replaced American jazz bassist Steve Swallow on a project with Antonio Placer the Galician musician and poet. It was with Antonio Placer that he developed the instrumental versatility that was to become his true signature. Other collaborations followed including the French-Algerian band Gnawa Diffusion and the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa.
Stracho Temelkovski has composed and performed music for various French contemporary dance choreographers. He is also very involved in the cultural networks and outreach projects in his area. In addition to his work with local schools and neighbourhoods, he has offered workshops in prisons for several years. The first video from the album Saudade des Baumettes was inspired by some work he did with a female Cape Verdean prisoner from the Baumettes prison in Marseille.
These enriching collaborations and experiences have allowed Stracho Temelkovski to invent a real musical alchemy, a bridge between learned music and traditional and popular music. It is this alchemy that we can hear on The Sound Braka.
Stracho Temelkovski bass, mandole, Brazilian 10-string guitar, electric guitar, percussions, beatbox
Jean-François Baëz accordion, Jean-Charles Richard saxophones, Ashraf Sharif Khan sitar
Jean-Marie Machado piano, Antony Gatta percussions + guests
“A seductive first instrumental album … alternating energy and lyricism, wildness and serenity.“
LE MONDE (FR)
“A delightful first album.”
ROLLING STONE (FR)
“A very gypsy way of vibrating to the rhythm of brass bands and the lyricism of Middle-Eastern melodies.”
TELERAMA fff (FR)
” This metropolitan folk from all over the world has been brought together and transformed into a new, very contemporary genre ”
ROOTSTIME (BE)
” Where it would become a mess in less gifted hands, Temelkovsky and his band know how to make it an exemplary unity ”
HEAVEN MAGAZINE (NL)
” The music is exciting from start to finish, a touch of melancholy, and above all, it’s beautiful ”
MOORS MAGAZINE (NL)
” Balkan and Middle Eastern atmospheres dissolve into jazzy and funky escapades “
MIXED WORLD MUSIC (NL)
Contacts:
BOOKING : JMP PROD
franck.feret@jmp.fr
+336 11 51 52 57
MDC : MAGGIE DOHERTY
maggie.doherty@music-mdc.com
+331 42 01 95 36
