Kosovo

 Kosovo is another west Balkan nation that is on my bucket list.  Strictly speaking it's not a fully recognised country by the UN and is stilled claimed by Serbia, but it effectively operates as one and is recognised as such by 110 countries.  With the recent political wind change in Serbia this situation may change in the near future.  The main language is Albanian, and culturally Kosovans feel closer to Albania than Serbia.

Let's start with something very traditional from the village of Zym in the Prizren region, the Ensemble Katerina Josip, who take their name from a famous actress who was born in Zym.  You can hear some of their music on the 2015 compilation album Kangë e Defa – Female Rhapsodies in Kosovo, but here is a live performance by them:

And talking about that album, there is a short film by director Vincent Moon to accompany the album:

Vocalist and arranger Agona Shporta is from Prizren, Kosovo's second city. She presents rearrangements of traditional Albanian songs in a contemporary way accompanied by acoustic guitar and piano.  Here's a song called E dehun jam (Duhet të ngutemi) (I'm drunk (We must hurry)) from her 2024 debut album Hape Portën:

In a similar vein is singer, actor and cabaret artist Edona Reshitaj, who was born in Prizren in 1982, although her style has more jazz influences.  She plays with a full jazz band, who all get space for their individual solos.  Here's a song from her 2020 album Zonjat e Kanges called Moj zogo / Shega guracake (no idea what it means...):

Next we are heading to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, where we meet Balkan Funk band Gipsy Groove.  They were founded in 2010 and describe themselves as the first and only band in Kosovo playing Roma music, which they fuse with Jazz, Funk, Reggae and Ska.  They are known for their energetic and charismatic live performances.  Here's a song from their 2013 self-titled album called Djelem Djelem:

Finally we stop in the village of Tygjec in the Kamenica-Dardana Region of western Kosovo.  This was the birth place in 1950 of the late singer (died 2021) Demir Krasniqi.  Already winning regional prizes in his childhood, he went on to study and later teach traditional music writing some 1,500 tunes and songs himself as well as collecting 4,000 folk songs.  His 1977 album Në Kerçovë Na Ra Një Gjamcë was released in 2024 and here is a song from it called Gajde E Muratit:

That's it from Kosovo, next we are heading to North Macedonia.  In the meantime, thanks for reading / listening and you can follow my virtual trip on my Tripline map.  Oh and by the way, if you want to join my Musical Rover Facebook group, you are welcome to share some of your music with me on there.  There's been quite a bit of traffic on this blog recently, and it would be nice to meet some of you on there.