Mimika Orchestra Released “Altur Mur” LP

With this album, Mimika orchestra, a world jazz crossover concept orchestra founded by Maja Rivić and Mak Murtić 12 years ago in London takes you on a journey into the lost soul of the Mediterranean. Dive into the mystical fog carried by “with those assymetric Balkan rhythms and wall of brass” (Musicdeli) and have courage to evoke the feelings of love, death and existence captured in the passing of time. The author, Mak Murtić says that the album is a vision of an non-existent place in the Mediterranean, where cultural and personal reinvention overlap.

Mak Murtić started to research mediterranean rhythms, melodic patterns and languages three years ago while living on the island Krk and the research and interest was a foundation for the orchestral suite. The lyrics were written by Marta Kolega in collaboration with Murtić from the research into Mediterranean’s cultural entaglement all the way to the themes of poetry of love, death and existence:

“The creation of the texts and lyrics for “Altur Mur” was a journey across the islands of the Adriatic sea, their atmospheres, the way people interact, the languages, the lifestyles and the worldviews of their inhabitants. I collected phrases that have a strong sound, an unusual picture, an unexpected beauty and I put them together so they tell a story about a lost soul, an individual who tries to find their way in this world, a story that echoes that of the Odysseus and carries the same salty scent of the sea and the halting feeling that you do not know exactly where you are going to” says Marta Kolega.

Mimika orchestra’s second single from the album is Thalassa (eng. The Sea), a song about an eery drowning of a body of a former lover into the depths of the sea of memories and through it the album escapes the vision of the endless feast that governs the protagonists of the suite. The album thus finishes in a song which carries a mythical force (the sea, the tides) which moves a tiny swimmer who then fully surrenders to it.

Mimika orchestra is a renown Zagreb (Croatia) based international jazz / third stream orchestra currently promoting the upcoming album “Altur Mur” and playing material from the previous album “Divinities of the Earth and the Waters”. Both albums deal with a place of identity through folklore and mediterranean inspired subjects.

Mimika Orchestra performed on the London Jazz Festival three times (2012,2014,2015), won first prize on the Love Supreme Jazz Festival, they performed on the London Olympic and London Paralympic festivals, on Latitude festival, in Kino Šiška, in Lazareti, in Museum of contemporary Arts Zagreb, Jazz Art Montenegro and many other festivals around Europe. Their music has been performed by other ensembles in Canada, US and China as well as the EU.