- Thursday 2 July
One need only consider Širom's album titles to get a sense that this Slovenian trio is not a band like most others. Take the title of their latest critically acclaimed masterpiece, In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper (2025), which immediately sets the imagination in motion and unfolds inner landscapes that the music supports with striking originality.
The band's three members, Iztok Koren, Samo Kutin and Ana Kravanja, come from different corners of Slovenia, and the roots of their music reach into the rich landscapes and folk music traditions of these regions. But in Širom's hands, these roots form the foundation for wild musical growth with depth, expressive improvisations and hypnotic trance moods.
Musically, their patiently unfolding instrumental compositions draw on cosmic jazz, krautrock, classic minimalism and folk music traditions from around the world. The trio themselves call the genre “imaginary folk”, which is an apt description of their music’s wide-ranging, globally oriented and idiosyncratic take on folk music that unites the past and the future. The trio's distinctive sound is produced using a wide range of instruments, including homemade sound objects, traditional European instruments such as the hurdy gurdy, and instruments from places such as Mongolia, West Africa and Iran.
Attending a Širom concert is therefore a thoroughly sensory experience, where you are almost overwhelmed by the trio's intense moods and creative use of instruments from all over the world. This was already evident when Širom visited Roskilde Festival with an impressive concert in 2018. Now they are finally returning with their ever-imaginative sound universe.
