BAKALINA VELIKA
Jani Kutin, vocals, lyrics, flute, goat horn
Marjan Stanić, percussion, drums
Matej Magajne, electric guitar, bass guitar
Andrea Pandolfo, trumpet, flugelhorn, piano
Dejan Lapanja, drums, acoustic guitar, bass guitar
Samo Kutin, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, balafon, brač, hurdy gurdy, bass harp, n’goni

First there was Bakalina, a duo of self-taught musicians—lyricist and singer, sharp-tongued farmer-poet Jani Kutin and accordionist Renata Lapanja. In the nearly ten years since its inception, Bakalina’s contemporary folk tunes and socially critical and lyrical messages, sung in the local dialect, have taken them from the Tolmin area to the largest concert venues and the most remote villages. With each concert and album, Bakalina grew and became Bakalina Velika, featuring members of Jani’s former collective Salamandra Salamandra such as Samo Kutin, Dejan Lapanja, Matej Magajne and associated comrades – percussionist Marjan Stanić and Roman-Trieste trumpeter Andrea Pandolfo.

They have released two albums so far – Prvi krajec was released in the spring of 2019, followed by the album Zviezdna srebruo in 2022. The repertoire from the latter album, recorded entirely at various locations in the natural environment of Goriška and the wider area (on a snow-covered mountain, in a cave, by a river, among trees, on mountain pastures, in the ruins of an old church, under the century-old Križar’s tree) will form the framework of the concert in Nova Gorica, where the band will also present new instruments (lyre, flutes, and drum) made from thousand-year-old Čadrska fir wood. The group is busy preparing a new album, so the audience can expect some premieres, and certainly a new hit, Suoča, dedicated to the Soča River.