VLADO KRESLIN, MALI BOGOVI, BELTINSKA BANDA

Performers:

Vlado Kreslin (vocals, guitar), Miro Tomassini (guitar, mandolina)

Davor Klarič (keyboard), Beno Pirnat (bass), Gašper Peršl (drums)

Iztok Cergol (violin, accordion, saxophone), Samo Budna (violin)

Dani Kolarič (cymbals), Štefan Banko (clarinet, saxophone)

Katarina Kreslin, Milan Kreslin (vocals)

Viktor Marič (accordion)

For nearly two decades VLADO KRESLIN has been in the centre of the Slovenian popular music scene, and over the past few years has surely reached the height of his creativity and popularity.

He began as a singer in rock groups (Martin Krpan), gradually breaking through to the foreground also as the author of numerous unforgettable songs. At the same time, he began going back more and more to his own roots and drawing upon the creative energy of the musical heritage of Prekmurje, a region in north-eastern Slovenia which is his homeland.

Through his appearances with Beltinska banda - a group of Prekmurje folk singers and musicians in their seventies and eighties (the oldest member, the double bass player Jouzek was born in 1905) Kreslin enriched his repertoire with folk-songs of the region.

In the meantime Vlado Kreslin has brought together a number of younger musicians into the group Mali bogovi (Little gods), and with them plays his compositions in more mainstream rock arrangements with the touch of the flatlands of Prekmurje. Often members of Mali bogovi join Beltinska banda on stage, and in this way music continues to bridge generations, both for those on stage and those in the audience.

With his melange of so-called "world music" and his own songs, Kreslin won over several generations of Slovenes.

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