Goran Bregović and his Wedding and Funeral Orchestra at /FORM Space

Very few musicians have managed to develop an art of such amplitude that coherently mixes such a great variety of styles and techniques without losing its identity. A Bregović piece can be recognized on the very first hearing and seems to address the whole Earth with no distinction of race, sex, age or religion. In contract, quite a few musicians would be content with only a fragment of Goran Bregović’ s career. Contemporary composer, traditional musician or rock star, he did not have to choose – he took it all to invent a music that is both universal and unmistakably his own.

Multiple beliefs, identity, mixtures and complex paradoxes inspire Goran Bregović, so he unites, on the allegorical level, the three religions, using the violin as a metaphoric instrument. Oriental, klezmer and classical styles coexist in three instrumental pieces performed by unique soloists from Israel, the Balkans and Maghreb.

Goran Bregović invited various Gypsy artists to join him on stage: Gogol Bordello from Ukraine, Florin Salam from Rumania, Stephan Eicher from Switzerland and The Gipsy Kings from France.

"I grew up in a neighbourhood in Sarajevo where time was measured by the bells of the catholic church nearby, by those of the orthodox church and by the muezzin’s prayer invocations. Since then all my life and all my music have been marked by the wealth of these different chants. My wish is that this privilege be a natural right for all children. May these three letters be my invocation for peace, and may it be heard."

-- Goran Bregović