The music of Bratko Bibič is paradoxical: simple and complex, serious and funny, cerebral and silly. Tender melodies, pure as folk songs, are embroidered with wordless jabbering vocals and strange sound effects. A tune goes around in a circle, hypnotically repetitive, then shoots off in a different direction. Rhythms swerve, stop, and start. A clarinet wails, a violin murmurs and squeals, a music box tinkles. At the heart of it all is the accordion: Bibič plays with the many different sounds the instrument can make, from the roar of the full-throated reeds to the breathing of bellows without keys and the voiceless click of keys without bellows.
Istra (Istria) has a centuries-old tradition of trade fairs which Istrian towns keep alive. Fairs are places where people trade, meet, communicate, have fun as always…
