DINE DONEFF STORYTALES (Germany/Greece)

DINE DONEFF-double bass, tambura, drums, vocals (Germany/Greece)

Harris Lambrakis – ney, organ

Kyriakos Tapakis – oud

Composer, double bassist, multi-instrumentalist, educator and author with a distinctive musicallanguage, Dine Doneff (Kostas Theodorou) is one of the most authentic figures on thecontemporary European jazz and world music scene. Born in Germany to a family of Macedonian immigrants, he was raised in Aegean Macedonia. His work represents a rare fusion of Balkan musical tradition, improvisation, contemporary composition, and a personal anthropological search for identity and memory. A self-taught musician, he has been building his career since the mid-1980s as an instrumentalist, arranger, producer and composer. Throughout the 1990s he worked on numerous studio projects, and later became part of Savina Yannatou’s ensemble Primavera en Salonico, with which he participated in several releases for the legendary ECM Records label. His music is deeply rooted in the soundscape of the Balkans, while simultaneously moving through contemporary jazz, free improvisation and chamber music. Critics often highlight his ability to connect avant-garde, folklore, jazz and contemporary classical music into a unique and instantly recognizable artistic voice. In 2017, at the initiative of producer Manfred Eicher, he founded the label neRED music, through which he releases his latest projects. Today, Dine Doneff lives and works between Germany and the Balkans, continuing to create music that transcends genre and cultural boundaries, in which personal narrative becomes a universal artistic language. The project “Storytales” is an imaginary songbook of ballads, lullabies, tales and rites inspired by the folk poetry of the geographical region of Macedonia. Here interpreted by artists who have decades of collaboration together, with extensive experience in interweaving composition and freestyle improvisation.