This year’s 31st edition of the Jazz Cerkno festival offers an insight into a wide spectrum of new jazz, presented by leading figures from the American, European and Slovenian jazz scene with projects never heard before. Electronics and hip hop, nu-jazz and free jazz, fragments of traditional music and free improvisation – all this and much more will flow into the unique sonic visions of this year’s performers. We will host numerous guitarists, with the six-string instrument present in as many as six bands. However, the guitar will not always take center stage in the soundscapes of all of these bands, but will blend harmoniously with other instruments – whether in stunning spontaneous improvisations and experiments or in carefully crafted jazz compositions that continuously expand and reinvent the elements of this resilient genre. As usual, the festival will take place over the weekend, from Friday to Sunday, and will be accompanied by a diverse program of side events, including a music residency, a workshop for children, a discussion and the Jazz Hike – a guided walk with a concert.
The opening concert of this year’s sonically and stylistically rich festival will showcase unconventional big band music. Big Band Krško, active for over 40 years, will perform under the direction of German guitarist and singer Monika Roscher, who boldly blends modern jazz with progressive rock and even metal. The program will feature selective compositions from Roscher’s three albums, which she wrote for her big band. This will be followed by the Austrian quartet Synesthetic4, known for combining nu-jazz, experimental hip-hop, modern classical music and contemporary electronics. The quartet, which has performed at a number of renowned jazz festivals in London, Berlin, Trondheim, and Saalfelden, will present their latest album Bread. Friday’s program will conclude with the Argentinian-Portuguese-French trio Hypomaniac. Featuring saxophonist Camila Nebbia, double bassist Gonçalo Almeida and drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq, the trio moves deftly from explosive bursts of noisy free jazz to carefully crafted ambient textures.
Saturday’s program will begin with a concert at the music school, where Slovenia’s leading jazz pianist Kaja Draksler will premiere a new solo project inspired by early pianistic styles such as ragtime and stride. She will focus on the sound color of pianos and pianists of that time while expanding the repertoire into microtonality. The program on the main stage will open with the Gašper Piano Adder Klank project. Guitarist and electronic musician Gašper Piano, known for creating abstract structures, has been organizing “gatherings of spontaneous sound collisions” under the name Adder Klank since 2021. The latest version of the project features double bassist Tomaž Grom and Portuguese musicians, José Lencastre (saxophone) and drummer João Valinho (drums). The American quartet Mary Halvorson Canis Major will follow. This is a new quartet by the renowned guitarist, who has topped the Downbeat Critics Poll as Guitarist of the Year for nine consecutive years since 2017. Along with her long-time collaborator, drummer Tomas Fujiwara, the band also includes double bassist Henry Fraser and trumpeter Dave Adewumi. The evening will conclude with the sextet Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Exit) Knarr, led by the Norwegian double bassist, known for his work with the bands Atomic, The Thing and Free Fall. Since 2020, he has led the collective (Exit) Knarr, which seamlessly weaves together elements of Norwegian folk music, avant-garde jazz, psychedelic rock and traditional rhythms. The sextet will present newly arranged songs from all three albums, ahead of the release of their upcoming album fly in June.
Sunday’s program will open with a performance by the Italian-Tunisian quartet Marco Centasso Um/Welt. Led by the Italian double bassist, the project builds hypnotic music through the interplay of pairs: acoustics and electronics, the deep tones of the double bass and bass clarinet, and the bright frequencies of the voice and oud. The quartet’s floating music draws on contemporary jazz, electronics, and fragments of Arab and Mediterranean music. This will be followed by the premiere collaboration between the renowned British guitarist Fred Frith – an innovator in improvisation, avant-garde, and new classical music – and Slovenian percussionist and sound researcher Jaka Berger. In their Auditory Continuum project, they will use prepared instruments to explore subtle interweavings of environmental sounds (the rustling of the wind, the pulse of the city) and free improvisation. The festival will close with the Swedish quintet Cosmic Ear, inspired by Don Cherry’s legacy. Their music brings together free and spiritual jazz, traditional (especially African) music, and elements of experimental music and electronics. The roles of soloists and composers are shared among Mats Gustafsson and Goran Kajfeš (co-founders of the band) and Christer Bothén (a former collaborator of Don Cherry).
This year’s accompanying program features four events, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. On Saturday at 11:00, the final concert of the children’s workshop, entitled The Mysterious Sounds of Plants and Objects, will be held on the main stage, led by mentors Blaž Celarec and Prof. Petra Vidmar. At 12:00, a discussion titled Versatile Music Creators, moderated by Igor Bašin – BIGor, will take place at Gabrijel. On the final day of the festival, participants of the fifth Jazzohod (guided walk and concert) will head to the village of Zakriž, where Samo Kutin will perform on the hurdy-gurdy. At 16:30, as part of the Jazz Incubator #4 residency, the Slovenian-Greek duo Balkan Roots, comprised of Žiga Ipavec (drums, percussion) and Manos Barkatsas (Cretan lute, electric guitar), will perform at the music school.
We warmly invite you to the 31st edition of the Jazz Cerkno Festival, taking place from May 22 to 24 at Star plac and other locations. Pre-sale festival tickets are available until May 21. As the hotel in Cerkno is currently closed, we recommend booking alternative accommodation as soon as possible, as options in the Cerkno region are limited.
You are warmly invited to the 31st Jazz Cerkno for a fresh dose of a wide range of new jazz – from big band sound to nu-jazz to free improvisation.