12 VOICES FROM THE BALKANS

**12 VOICES FROM THE BALKANS** The Balkans are not one voice, but a magnificent polyphony. This playlist travels through twelve musical traditions—from Slovenia and Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo; from North Macedonia, Albania and Greece to Bulgaria, Romania and Turkish Thrace. Across mountains, river valleys, village squares and Adriatic shores, these songs tell of love and separation, courtship and marriage, exile and belonging, sorrow and celebration. Fiery dances meet intimate laments; powerful communal singing alternates with the solitary voices of shepherds, travellers and lovers. Each piece was composed, arranged and produced by me as an artistic tribute to a particular regional tradition. The music is not intended as a museum reconstruction, but as a respectful contemporary encounter with the characteristic rhythms, vocal colours, instruments and poetic imagination of the Balkans. Although every song has its own language and cultural identity, together they reveal something shared: a musical world in which joy is rarely without longing, sorrow is never without dignity, and even the deepest melancholy may suddenly rise to its feet and dance. **Twelve traditions. Twelve voices. One richly woven Balkan journey.** Music, arrangements and production: **Gerrit Stassyns**