Luboyna – Radio Luboyna LP (Geenger Records)

If you ever had an urge to take a short break from aggressive, fast and depressive music, now is the right time, and what’s a better pick of the day than Radio Luboyna, a debut LP by Macedonian artist Luboyna.  Seriously, this record will be right up your alley if you’re interested to break your daily listening routine with some unique blend of various musical expressions. This record will be especially interesting to those listeners who are not familiar with a Balkan world music scene because of all cheerful melodies, danceable rhythms, and all the involved instruments that are so characteristic for the Balkan regions. Just add great vocal capabilities of Vera Miloshevska and you are more than ready to explore a vast world of Luboyna’s music. First thing you’ll notice about this record is an impressive amount of involved instruments, so besides some basic standards comprised of a piano, guitars, bass, and drums, you may hear a brass section (alt sax, baritone sax, tuba, trumpet, and trombone), wind instruments (clarinet, tenor horn, flugelhorn), percussion section (darbuka, bendir drum, def, tapan), string instruments (kanun), and polyphone instruments (accordion, fender rhodes). Luboyna also incorporates some audio technics which are noncommon for folk music from this part of a globe alike electronic beats or turntable scratches which surely enhance the overall listening experience and surprisingly suit very good to this specific genre. Besides the very dominant exploitation of Balkan folk music, you may also hear a very strong presence of jazz, pop music, some moments where the whole band jumps into even more experimental waters and creates even more cheerful ambiance which will even fit the mood of those who are not exclusively the biggest fans of this musical expression. One thing is for sure, you’ll be surprised by this multi-instrumental attraction which includes a surprisingly huge amount of some quality musicians who gave their best to create something very special unique, and undoubtfully made a great contribution to the world music heritage. Radio Luboyna has been published by Geenger Records and it’s currently available on black vinyl, CD and via all streaming services, so pick your favorite listening method and experience this musical phenomenon with a lot of attention and patience.