BRATKO BIBIČ & DEDLEY WOODLEYBEARS (Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic)

Bratko Bibič, accordion, vocals
Paul Schuberth, accordion, vocals
Victoria Vicy Pfeil, saxophones, vocals
Tomáš Novák, violin, vocals

A few years ago, composer and accordionist Bratko Bibič invited three musicians of the younger generation, living and working in Austria, Paul Schuberth, Victoria Vicy Pfeil and Tomáš Novák, to a special episode of his musical career. Bibič and accordionist and composer Paul Schuberth have also been regularly (co)performing in the 15-member accordion orchestra Die Wiener Ziehharmoniker since its founding in 2009, and together with Otto Lechner, they form the accordion Trio Fatasticus. Bratko Bibič performed with Dedley Woodleybears on their first tour in Slovenia in August 2015 in Ljubljana, Izola, Labor, and Novo mesto (Goga festival), and in 2016 in Austria, Slovenia, and Germany. The series of performances ended in March 2017 with the gala closing concert of the 17th edition of the Accordion Festival Vienna (Reigen), one of the largest accordion music festivals in Europe. They played a concert of Bibič’s selected “imaginative film narrative”, “mixed medley”, and a stylistically diverse set of original compositions of the trio featuring elements of avant-garde jazz, new music, experimental world music, critical workers’ songs, as well as Turkish, Slovak, Macedonian folk songs, and improvisations. The recordings from the Kromberk concert in 2018 represent a large part of the songs published on Bratko Bibič’s new album Hommage a cliche.

Bratko Bibič has been active on the domestic and (mostly) international “different music” scene for 40 years. “Der Balg-Beisser”, “Zwiderwurz”, “Zertrümmerer” or “Ober-Madley”, as he was called by music critics in the German-speaking world, is considered as one of the pioneers of emancipation of the accordion from the corset of musical stereotypes from the early 1970s onwards. The open space between world music, minimalism, improvisation and the avant-garde he connects with a distinct melodiousness, sudden intrusions of disharmonies and adventurous rhythmic reversals, that originate from his characteristic method of “cinematic narration”. He cultivated and still develops paradoxical “simple and complex, serious and humorous, thoughtful and silly” music with the groups Begnagrad (SLO / YU, 1976-1983), Nimal (SLO, CH, USA 1987-1991), Accordion Tribe (SLO 1995-2010), The Madleys (SLO 1995-2015), Otto Lechner & Die Wiener Ziehharmoniker (A, SLO 2009-), and Dedley Woodleybears (A, CZ, SLO 2015-).

With these groups and solo, in duets or ad hoc projects, he has given concerts mostly in Western Europe, USA, Canada and India at a wide variety of venues, from underground and alternative to reputable festival and cultural institutions such as Knitting Factory, New York City’s Town Hall, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Center, WDR Grosse Sendessaal Koeln, Wiener Konzerthaus, Bruckner Haus, Luxmebourg Philharmonie, Palace of Arts Budapest, Koelner Philharmonie, Bimhuis Amsterdam, MIDEM Cannes, Cankarjev dom … Bibič’s music has been recorded on fifteen albums in Slovenia, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Israel, most recently on the albums Bratko Bibič & The Madleys with guests: Brutko Bimbič’s Cabinet of Miracles (SLO 2013), Die Wiener Ziehharmoniker. Live in Metropol (A 2014) and Bratko Bibič & hosts: Hommage a cliché (2019/20), in the documentaries Accordion Tribe, Music Travels (CH-A 2004), and Accordionists (SLO 2005).

He was and still is an author and performer in the fields of (street) theater, contemporary dance, more complex multimedia projects (most recently Javorca Resurekcija. Echoes from Invisible Landscapes, 2016), music – film production (Bridko Bebič’s Traveling Cinema: In the Home Garden 1 -3 ,1999-2005 / 2015-2016; “From blacksmith to miner”, 2018), cultural and political activism (ŠKUC, KUD F. Prešeren, Mreža za Metelkovo…), connected to applied research (cultural infrastructure, urbanism: Kino Šiška, Stara elektrarna, Rog …), and journalism (numerous articles and two books: Hrup z Metelkove, Mirovni inštitut – Politike, Ljubljana 2003, Harmonika za butalce, Beletrina – zbirka Koda, Ljubljana 2014).

Admission free.

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