JapaLkan (name meaning – Japan + Balkan) was formed in 2014 by a professional musician Naoki Hishinuma (lead vocal and trumpet) who also plays the tuba and the flugelhorn. The band was made together with professional musicians who are active on the Tokyo music scene and across Japan. The band lead, Hishinuma, often performs with the world-renowned orchestra Shibusashirazu. He travelled across Europe with them, including Slovenia, but this will be his first time in Serbia. There are two girls in the band, Ray Morishima (fiddle and back vocal) and Mariko Kobayashi (bass guitar and back vocal). Other band members are Yuki Ichioka (tenor sax and back vocal), Yokota Kiyohiro (guitar and back vocal) and Ryo Tanaka (drums and back vocal). Their first album Ajde! Ajde! Ajde! was out in 2015, and in 2017 they published a mini album Mesečina. Their repertoire includes tracks such as Mesečina, Ederlezi, Underground čoček, Ajde Jano, Niška banja, Oj Coko Coko, etc. Last year in August, the Serbian media covered JapaLkan, which sparked so much attention that a family from Serbia sent them custom-made traditional costumes from Šumadija.

Vlatko Stefanovski was born in 1957 in Prilep, Macedonia in a theatrical family. He started playing the guitar at the age of 13. In his late teens he formed the group Leb i Sol which became one of the most important names in the music scene of former Yugoslavia. Leb i Sol released 14 albums and toured around the world. Since the mid-nineties Stefanovski has developed a successful solo career. He has recorded remarkable solo releases, like Cowboys & Indians, Sarajevo, Vlatko Stefanovski trio, Kula od karti, Thunder from the blue sky etc. The collaboration with Miroslav Tadić on the albums Krushevo, Treta majka, Live in Belgrade, and Live in Zagreb shed a new light on Vlatko’s acoustic guitar work, and his further exploration of the Macedonian traditional music. We are on the interesting crossroad between the East and the West. We have influences from the old Byzantine music, we have influences from the Ottoman times, and we also have influences from the classical music of Europe. And in recent times we have big influences of pop music and rock and jazz, said Stefanovski in an interview. In the last several years he has played and recorded all around the world with many top artists like Tommy Emmanuel, Stochelo Rosenberg, Gibonni, Jan Akkerman, Theodosii Spassov, Stefan Milenković, Kudsi Erguner, Bojan Z, Manu Katche, Toni Levin and many others. His recent work also includes music for films, theatre and ballet. Stefanovski is the author of the soundtracks for films such as Stole Popov’s Gipsy Magic, Yesim Ustaoglu’s Journey To The Sun, Mirjana Vukomanović’s Three summer days and Skyhook directed by Ljubiša Samardžić. Stefanovski is well known for his unique guitar technique and tone.

Momčilo Bajagić Bajaga is a Serbian rock musician, composer and song writer. He joined the band TNT at the age of fourteen. At eighteen, he became a member of Riblja čorba, one of the most important Serbian and Yugoslav rock bands. During the six years with them, he played the rhytm guitar, but continued to grow as a songwriter.

Bajaga left the band in 1984 and made his debut album Pozitivna geografija. His first solo concert was in the Zagreb club Kulušić, with musicians he had occasionally played with. For the promotion of their album in Belgrade’s Dom sindikata, the band was called Instruktori. Soon Bajaga i Instruktori became one of the most popular rock bands in former Yugoslavia, mainly owing to Bajaga’s skill to write lyrics and music for striking, catchy and seductive pop songs. The band’s discography includes ten albums with songs of different motives – from sapphires to satellites. Their concert at Moscow’s Gorky park in 1986 is legendary – 100.000 showed up and the Soviet police had to interrupt it for security reasons.

Bajagić made music for film and theatre, and wrote songs for pop, rock and folk artists. His music is played at stadiums and in concert halls, in taverns, as well as political campaigns and protests. The universality of Bajaga’s songs puts Bajaga i Instruktori at the very core of local mainstream, if there ever was such a thing.