Macedonian producer and DJ Ahilea has brought together a fantastic group of musicians for a wild ride along the Autoput. So fasten your seatbelts and brace yourselves for a new and visionary take on Balkan music.

Ahilea’s musical cosmos : his grandmothers sang him Walachian, Macedonian and Greek songs and folk music. His parents were more into rock ‘n’ roll. He grew up listening to the vibrant new wave and pop music of former Yugoslavia that was popular throughout the entire Eastern Bloc and renowned for its revolutionary new approaches, creativity and topical references. But, like his colleague Shantel, it was the traditional music of the Balkans with its melodic and rhythmic structures that Ahilea was drawn to and which he tried to blend with his very own electronic lo-fi aesthetic. One particularly rich source of inspiration for him was the music played at weddings. Yet Ahilea is also open to all kinds of contemporary urban styles – from funk to reggae, freestyle, electronica, broken electronics and guitar-led indie rock.

The sound of Café Svetlana recognises the multi-ethnicity and culture of the Balkans. But instead of flying the nationalistic flag, this is music to be savoured with a glass of sljivo, palinka, raki or tsuika, an open mind and respect for the musicians. Every style comes into its own here: Greek rembetiko, Turkish and Macedonian belly-dancing, Serbian and Rumanian folk dances, Roma songs, Albanian-Epirotic clarinet sounds, thunderous brass and the mournful yet cliché-free lament of the fiddle. All with a touch of fresh beats & grooves, basslines and finely chiselled loops from the master of the mixing deck. That’s the sound: Nu Pop Music from the Balkans to take you from the bar to the dancefloor and all the way to the sofa back home! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.