Mori čupi Kosturčanki / Мори чупи Костурчанки

Livada is a music band from Brno, Czech Republic, playing a repertoire of mostly Macedonian folk songs, spiced up with a few pieces from Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo. Our approach ranges from traditional “izvor”, “starograd”, and “čalgija” styles to ethnofolk fusions, where the Moravian roots of some of our members bubble through.

But what's izvor? Starograd? Čalgija? Izvor is a Macedonian word that means “spring” or “source”; izvor music — which has been always played in small villages of mountainous Macedonian countryside — uses the big Balkan drum (“tapan”) and original folk string instruments (“tamburas”), and very often a droning tone that accompanies the whole song. Starograd (“old city”) music typically includes the accordion and harmonic switches among chords that are much more common for our typical Czech audiences' ears. And Čalgija is urban folk with strong Turkish and oriental elements.