Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Svjetlana Bukvich Nichols

Photo by Dejan Vekic,
courtesy of the artist.
Music Now: Svjetlana Bukvich Nichols. Article by K.K.W

With a mix of folk sounds reminiscent of Bosnia & Herzegovina,  and contemporary arrangements carried on a digital wave, Svjetlana Bukvich Nichols brings you into a strange and enchanting world. 
Svjetlana Bukvich Nichols.
Photo by Shannon Greer
More then just a good song, "You move me" has a dual feeling of the exciting, and the somber. Her innovative use of electronics with traditional sounds creates a musical path that unfolds in your mind. There's a Mediterranean quality to the music that melds perfectly with her voice, the haunting sound of the stringed instrument, and the percussion. Her sultry voice fusing with a slight ambient/electronic feel,  the rhythms of the Balkans,  with a touch of a trance-like spell.


"Fruits of Eden" (excerpt) brings together the feeling of world long past, but not forgotten, with a movement towards something else. The tempo picks up and sharply rises, then stops, easing back towards the way it came. It brings to mind the thought of wandering through the older sectors of Sarajevo at night, under the watchful light of a full-moon.


"Over water, over stone(excerpt) is a mostly instrumental piece that's somber, and yet spirited in its charm. 'Non-western microtonal sounds' envelop the mind beckoning you towards the sacred. Her music gives you elements of a people, through a sound that is a haunting modern take, on some of the various aspects of their past.  The voices in beginning are like reverberations from a dream of Bosnia & Herzegovina, fueled by "the green fairy". The string instrument(s) ache with joy and sorrow, while ambient sounds gather round and bring you closer,  to a place where days of the digital present, meet the past. 


Svjetlana Bukvich Nichols is part of a progress wave of contemporary music coming out of the Balkans that exudes aspects of western pop/electronic, alternative and or rock, but always with that peculiar, seductive and wild feel of the East of Europe. If you would like to know more, go to:www.reverbnation.com/svjetlanamusic, or:http://svjetlanamusic.com/ "Art is the reason, art is the way"
Svjetlana Bukvich Nichols.
Photo by Shannon Greer 

Svjetlana Bukvich Nichols.
Photo by Dejan Vekic

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