Vlatko Stefanovski

Stefanovski started his career at an early age in bands such as VIS Jegulje, Iris and Breg (the last fronted by keyboard player Miki Petkovski). The band Leb i Sol was formed on January 1, 1976 by Vlatko, Bodan Arsovski, Dimitrija Čučovski and Nikola Kokan Dimuševski. The first solo recording that Vlatko ever did was Cowboys and Indians, while he was still with the band. The line up featured many guests, even exclusive ones, such as Goran Bregović, Zlatko Oriđanski, actress Ana Kostovska, master drummer Mahmut Muzafer, Ilija Pejovski, Goce Dimitrovski, etc. His next project titled Sarajevo was recorded in 1993 and it was music recorded for a play written by Vlatko's brother Goran Stefanovski and was directed by Slobodan Unkovski. The CD was released in 1996 as soon as the civil war in Bosnia ended. In 1997, he released the soundtrack for Stole Popov's movie Gypsy Magic, and the title track "Gypsy Song" became an instant hit throughout the Balkans and today it can regularly be found featured in many world music compilations. The soundtrack was bolstered by the exclusive performances of master musician Medo Chun of Ensemble Teodosievski fame and Gazmend Berisha (Project Zlust). Later in 1997, together with Miroslav Tadić, a professor at CalArts in LA, he recorded Krushevo a collection of traditional songs and reels played on two guitars, which to this very day is one of the highlights of his career as a recording and performing artist. For five days, they recorded their music at the Makedonium in the city of Krushevo. By the end of 1998, he released an album with his Trio, simply titled Vlatko Stefanovski Trio, a tour de force featuring some heavyweight performances by Vlatko and his trio. He wrote music for several films which was latter collected and released as Kino Kultura in 2001. During this period he made guest appearances on various artist's records like Bojan Zulfikarpasic's Koreni, Vanja Lazarova's Ritmistica, Gibonni's Judi, Zviri i Beštimje and Mirakul, to name but a few. The work he did with Gibonni proved to very fruitful and successful, both commercially and artistically, as well as giving him the opportunity to meet and work with musicians such as Manu Katche, Pino Paladino, Tony Levin, Geffrey Oriema who would later perform on his next solo effort titled as Kula Od Karti (Tower Of Cards). In 2004. he released Treta Majka, which is a continuation of his work with Miroslav Tadić. In 2006. after comeback tour of Leb i sol band, Vlatko left the band, which pursued to record their comeback album.