Filip Novosel & Mia Elezović: Susreti / Encounters

Filip Novosel, tambura
Mia Elezović, piano

The album Encounters mostly presents new works written for tambura and piano performed by Filip Novosel and Mia Elezović. This recording is yet another example of the gradual change in the perception of the tambura as an exclusively traditional instrument, and the integration of instruments until recently marked by a “traditional” association into the context of classical (contemporary) music can be traced in Croatia over the past several years. For example, the Music Tribune in Osijek held in 2022 was devoted precisely to the idiom of the tambura in the context of contemporary music, where a number of composers, sometimes for the first time, encountered the task of writing for this instrument. This release contains numerous solutions to the question of how to reconcile the sound of such seemingly different instruments as the tambura and the piano, or else demonstrates approaches that highlight their differences and at times even flirt with folk idioms. All of this can be heard in the works of Croatian composers, almost all of which were created precisely within the framework of the Encounters project, a kind of meeting point for the new challenges offered by this specific instrumentation: tambura and piano. (excerpt from the CD programme booklet)