BRINA & STRING.SI
Brina & String.si:
A music group from Slovenia, cherishing ethno sound
Group members
Brina Vogelnik – Saje - bass
Vlado Batista – violin
Marijan Dovic – violin
Nino de Gleria – double bass
Bogo Pecnikar - clarinet, flutes
Blaz Ceralec – percussionist
Brina Vogelnik – Saje originates from a renowned
Ljubljana artistic family. When just a kid, she was taught traditional
Slovenian songs by her mother, to later on first perform them
on the stage at the age of seventeen. At the time, she was a member
of the Andabrin Duet. Ever since then, she had a major role in
several artistic projects, including puppet theatre and play.
Brina’s cooperation with the String.si group has begun in 2000.
A story of the String.si begins in 1995 when
a composer and a violin player Vlado Batista from Koper founded
a group named New Strings. The turning point of its career was
a concert at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival in 1996. In 1998 Batista
was joined by new musicians and he changes the name of the group
into String.si. The suffix “si” featuring in their name has a
double meaning – in Slovenian, it denotes the plural (a few strings,
in this case), but is also an international Internet abbreviation
for Slovenia.
From the very beginning, String.si string trio
aimed at expanding the scope of sound typical for the string quartet.
There is a significant difference between the classical melodious
manner of playing string instruments and String.si’s performing.
Their rhythmical mode of playing is typical for the modern improvised
music, post-acoustic jazz and ethno music.
In springtime 2002 Brina & String.si released
their first CD titled “Grascakinja” (The Lady of the Castle),
released by the new and independent Slovenian publisher “Goga”.
Most songs in this CD have been traditionally arranged by Vlado
Batista. The texts have been selected by Brina Vogelnik-Saje amongst
the songs collected and arranged by her mother Eka Vogelnik. In
order to have the sound of Grascakinja more colourful, Brina&String.si
invited two young Slovenian musicians being most in demand to
join them in the studio and on the stage.
Brina&String.si played at the following festivals:
Cankarjev dom, Cultural Center, Ljubljana, April 2002
Festival Lent, Maribor, Slovenia, July 2002
Tanz&Folk Fest, Rudolstadt, Germany, July 2002
Strictly Mundial, Marseilles, France, February 2003
Grascakinja CD was declared the debut of the year by the ORF
1 Radio.
