Balkan rhythms and swing meet in album “Strange Suite” by Ateshkhan Yuseinov

published on 2/22/20 10:05 AM

Photo: @AteshTayfa

Ateshkhan Yuseinov is a graduate of the “Panayot Pipkov” National School of Arts in Pleven. Devoted to the guitar, he has became popular as part of the Zone C fusion formation. Together with Peter Ralchev (accordion) and Stoyan Yankulov-Stundzhi (drums), he also established the Zig-Zag trio as the result of their wonderful creative collaboration has been the album "When Bees Collect Honey".

Ivo Papazov- Ibryama (clarinet) - extremely talented and well-known instrumentalist, invited Ateshkhan Yuseinov to participate in a project called “Fairground”, which won the BBC World Music Award in 2005. Ateshkhan has been a guest to many international projects, including the Balkans Khans, where musicians of four generations are taking part in this music challenge. These are violin virtuoso Ventsi Takev, two-time world beatboxing champion Alexander Deyanov- SkilleR, composer Nikolay Ivanov, who plays several instruments and master of the drum and bagpipe Kolyo Ivanov.

Recently, Ateshkhan Yuseinov has released his solo album entitled “Strange Suite”. Producer is Dimitar Panev - a Bulgarian who has been living in Germany. Thanks to him, the album Strange Suite was released by Riverboat Records on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the creation of the world-famous British label. The album is dedicated to Phil Stanton, founder of Riverboat Records, who is a big fan of Ateshkhan Yuseinov's music. Here's what the guitarist himself says about his project:

This is a guitar album because we decided with my producer to take a more active role in guitar festival life of the world music stage in Europe. There are 10 songs included in the album as I have recorded most of them over the years. Strange Suite is interesting in its style diversity. You could say that my creative path is reflected in this album. I have invited various guest musicians in it. One of the songs gave the name of the album. It has a typical Balkan sound, but one can also hear swing in it. Alexander Deyanov SkilleR is among the special guests. We've worked with him on other projects and we decided that guitar combined with beatboxing sounds original. SkilleR very skillfully reproduces sounds of various instruments, not just percussion instruments. Every time we are on the stage together, both at home and abroad, we always attract a lot of interest.

In the album Strange Suite, a very important role as a vocalist has the guitarist’s wife - singer Venera Todorova. She participates in two of the tracks. Two other very famous musicians have also contributed to the project - Kostadin Genchev (shepherd’s flute) and Stoyan Yankulov-Stundzhi (drums).

In 2020 the album will be presented at all major festivals in this country - Jazz Forum (Stara Zagora), Jazz Fest (Bansko), Apollonia Arts Festival (Sozopol) and Jazz Fest (Rousse).