KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture (Hamze Hume, Bihać)
Concert: Saturday, January 14th, 2023 at 9 pm

Free but vibrant musical improvisation is the shortest description of the concept behind BaShBozouki's pseudonym. Founded by Asmir Šabić as an open and interactive space for creative collaboration of different musical sensibilities, BaShBozouki's moves between ethno noise sounds, electro sequences, free improvisation and vocal engaging slogans. With performances in different formations – solo, duo or trio – BaShBozouki's is a stretching concept of improvisation and participation. Ultimately, it is a musical crossover of different melodies, beats and thoughts, which thematically speak about migrations and stories that develop between two homelands. As such, BaShBozouki's music points to the harmony of diversity, evoking the ambient lines of hilly landscapes and meandering rivers of this or some other past time.

The name BaShBozouki's is a play of different words that historically had different meanings. The first part of the word (Turkish: baş) means head or leader, while the second is a reference to the Greek instrument bouzouki, which Šabić uses as one of his main expressive tools. At the same time, the Turkish word başıbozuk (English: irregularity, rumpus) best explains the stated artistic effort, and further expands the field of interpretation and understanding of what BaShBozouki's wants to be. The music that arises from the mentioned concept is eclectic, form-free, and as such, very clearly decentralized in terms of genre and theme. It is both an expressive and an authorial element far from the musical mainstream, and a search for intuitive, often spontaneous forms of music making and expression.

The founder of BaShBozouki, Asmir Šabić, is a guitarist, percussionist and producer. He has been a part of various artistic projects, festivals and events – Vuneny, Brain Damage, Fedayi Pacha, Bülent Kullukcu, Daqui Dub, Tuna Trio and Ghost, Majmoon are just some of them. He was a member of the band Vuneny from its founding in 2003 until he moved to Munich, where he currently lives and works. The concert in KRAK will be performed by a duo – Asmir Šabić (bouzouki, electronics) and Sebastian Maikäfer (violin, viola). Maikäfer is a multi-instrumentalist whose experience includes performing classical music, blues, rock, reggae, folk, jazz and experimental music. He is a member of the bands Das Weiße Pferd, Chinga Ling Twins, Pnema. He lives and works in Munich.