Working in the intersection of traditional song cycle and full-blown multimedia techno show, the duo fuses Ukrainian polyphony and other folk traditions with EDM, trap, dubstep, and more.

Balaklava Blues focuses on sharing the untold stories of their home country with the world. Their 2015 play Counting Sheep was greatly acclaimed, leading the band to win awards at the 2016 Edinburgh  Fringe – including a Fringe First award and Amnesty International’s  Freedom of Speech award. 

“Balaklava Blues music  is a reclamation of the violence perpetrated on my home country,” says  Mark Marczyk, “We want to redesign and remix physical  and psychological oppression and question how and why it continues to  inform who we are and what we can become.”

Madalitso’s story began in 2009 when a local producer in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, overheard the duo busking outside a shopping center.  Eight years later the duo performs its first concert outside of Malawi at the Sauti Za Busara Festival in 2017.  Six months later, the duo headed to Europe for a 2 week tour, the first time they traveled by airplane. Audiences enthusiastically embraced the down-to-earth nature and raw energy onstage of the duo, and thus their international touring took off. 

Their intuitive, authentic, and ruthless rhythms have taken Europe by storm.  In 2018, they returned to Europe for increasingly extended tours. Then in 2019, the duo released their second album called Wasala on Bongo Joe Records. Bongo Joe Records subscribes to Madalitso’s ethos of “why should we buy our instruments when we can build our own and get the sound we want”? The babatone played by Yobu is a handmade single-stringed instrument that is the perfect foil to Josefe’s guitar playing and steady foot-tapping drumbeat. Their authenticity is the reason they have been invited to perform in festivals and clubs around the world.

Their compositions use the Occitan language as a rhythmic instrument, combining poetry with hypnotic vocal harmonies cascading over shifting patterns of compelling percussion.

Their performance result in a confusing moment of tragic and cheerful mix, and rare intensity at the crossroads of trance, a punk choir and math-rock constructions; dancing and warm; hyper-rhythmic and panting.

In the acting work “La Grande Folie”, they question the myth of an unalterable “inheritance”, seeking instead “to answer the question of the boundaries between tradition and creation. An answer to those who say that music has a beginning and an end.

She moved from Iran to the U.S. one year ago and started collaborating with many different artists, also she started two new bands, one is an Iranian traditional band representing Iranian folk and traditional music, and they have been playing several times in NYC so far. This band tries to gather different pieces in various types of cultures and languages of different regions of Iran.

Rastegari is an extraordinary performer on Kamancheh and has been recognized by some of the best Kamancheh performers and instructors globally, who certified her as a Master Kamancheh player. She was featured as a guest speaker in the TEDx event “Oasis: Existence in Nothingness.” Additionally, she composed the score for multiple award-winning films, including “Dispirited” for which she won the award of “Best Original Score” from the Melbourne City Independent Film Awards (MCIFA), and the film “Rotten,” which was nominated for the original score in Japan Kadoma Festival.

Big Chief Juan Pardo’s Tribal Gold has been in the works for a decade with presentations geared toward Arts Centers, Community Events, and Festivals. The elaborate Mardi Gras Indian costumes are vital to share their vision. The ensemble enjoys interacting with audiences before and after the shows to answer questions regarding New Orleans culture, music, and Mardi Gras Indian heritage.

Fanctcha joined the Flores do Mindelo carnival company at the early age of 10. The carnival is one of the most important cultural events in Mindelo, that will her to receive mentorship from prominent producer and artists like Gregorio Gonçalves, a.k.a. Ti Goy and Cesária Évora. IN 1988 she came to the US, trough the Massachusetts Capeverdean community’s invitation, for a concert series in the company of Cesária Évora. Afterwards Fantcha decided to stay in the US and now lives in New York.

Fantcha’s musical identity combines African, Cuban and Portuguese styles. Her rich, sensuous voice is memorable when she sings the soulful mornas, evoking the ache of longing and loss. She is equally compelling with her renditions of coladeras, those danceable tunes that time after time has audiences on their feet dancing. Her style has continued to evolve through 5 albums, and numerous tours and concerts throughout Cape Verde, Europe and the US, and performances that include the Hollywood Bowl and Chicago World Music Festival.

He plays dynamic and energetic sets, blending traditional African and Latin rhythms with modern electronic influenced music creating a unique soundscape. For inspiration and connectivity to the roots and culture of the music he creates and plays, Adam has traveled to seven African nations and has also studied the Olatunji method of traditional Yoruba hand percussion and Malian Manding style. He has played in clubs and festivals all over the world sharing the stage with heavyweight and Grammy winning artists such as Femi Kuti, Bebel Gilberto, Oumou Sangaré, Louis Vega, Bill Laswell, Shiela E, As well as equally respected artists such as Tony Allen, Osunlade, Thievery Corporation, King Britt, Black Coffee, Frankie Knuckles, Ron Trent, Jazzanova, Quantic, Antibalas, Rich Medina and so many more. His current project Uhuru Afrika is known globally, hosts monthly events in Boston and NYC and one-off events worldwide. Adam was ranked one of the top 100 Afro House artists by Traxsource.