ANASTASIA:
Goran Trajkoski
lead vocal, bagpipes, flute
Zlatko Oridjanski
guitar, mandolin, flute, back. vocal
Zoran Spasovski
drums, percussions, keyboards, back. vocal
ANASTASIA is a group from Skopje, Macedonia. Existing for 8 years, it is the most successful group in the country and has become widely known on the international stages.
The music is a unique blend combining the Byzantine past, through Eastern Orthodox church music, with a rich gamut of ethnic rhythms. The instruments played are typical for the area where the group comes from and dwells in, s uch as kaval (flute), gajda (bagpipe), and tapan (drum), but modern technology like computers, samplers, synthesizers, etc. is also used.
ANASTASIA has made numerous music scores for movies, theater performances, and TV programs. Its last album, the original soundtrack for the movie "Before The Rain", bearing Polygram label, has been sold in thousands of copies worldwide. In 1996 ANASTASIA wrote the music for the theater performance "Bachanallia" which had its European tour with a remarkable success. In 1997 ANASTASIA released its new single CD, FACE/BURN, for Third Ear Music, as an announcement for the forthc oming new album which will be released for Polygram France.
"The first fascinating trait of ANASTASIA's music that immediately captures our senses is its radical originality, the surprisingly powerful, profound, and suggestive sound, which directly originates from an abundantly rich mus ical tradition. The first shock of fascination is so strong that it momentarily wakes up our curiosity and unlocks the door of our confidence, thus allowing the young masters from ANASTASIA to lead us to the extraordinary world of sounds. Indeed, there are no regrets for our succumbing to their creative magic since there is not even a shadow of delusion in ANASTASIA's music. Everything that these marvelous artists offer us is primordially sane, unspeakably remote in its roots, virginally fresh, and so genuinely modern. An enormous garmut of both the mental and the musical is a clear sign of an emanation of a magnificent talent.
Following their music, from one piece to another, we do not know what exactly should we ascribe our delight to. Is it the little-known, uniquely beautiful melody? Is it the meek, filigree-like lyricism that mesmerizes us with its genuine sincerity? Or is it the epic, or better still, the mythical power of the sound that almost reaches the heavens? Is it due to the ancient, the mysterious, the ingeniusly beauty of polytonality that flows in ANASTASIA's songs? Could it be th e magical lightness of these times which merge the old age music with the sounds of both the Orient and Europe, thus making them recognize one another and be strangers to each other? Should we ascribe this delight to the rhytm that turns some pieces into four-dimensional sound? There seems to be only one key to this: the perception of this authentic polyrhytmical magic is achieved only through devoting ourselves to the music, by admiring it"