Andrew Cronshaw, United Kingdom

For the past decade Andrew Cronshaw has been particularly connected with the traditional music of Finland but having in the late 1960s and early 1970s lived in Edinburgh and Scotland's north-west highlands, and with a life-long connection with northern Spain, he continues to draw on earlier influences from Scottish Gaelic and north Iberian musics, as well as from his native England.

With his eighth album, Ochre, he returns to English music, but views it from the perspective he's gained from immersion in other musics. Having gained critical plaudits internationally since its release in autumn 2004, and spent time in the European World Music airplay top 20, Ochre is nominated for the Critics Award in the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music (the other 3 nominees being albums by Youssou N'Dour, Lhasa and Tinariwen) and Cronshaw is also a nominee for Musician of the Year in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

At the heart of his instrumentation is a 74-string electrified European chord zither, to which he adds a wide range of other stringed, wind and percussion instruments including fujara (a 51 ft long ornately carved Slovakian shepherd's three-hole flute generating shivering breathy harmonics) and ba-wu (a seductive-toned brass-reeded instrument from China's Yunan province).

Session work includes playing on albums by Natacha Atlas, Suede, Scott Walker, Pascal Gaigne, B.J.Cole and others. When playing live he has usually been a solo performer, but is also many times accompanied by a guest musician like it is this year in Solin where he will be joined by Ian Blake. British multi-instrumentalist and composer Ian Blake has been a key musician on Andrew Cronshaw's last four albums, playing bass clarinet, soprano sax and other instruments. He lives in Australia, so Ethnoambient presents a rare opportunity to see him join Cronshaw in a live show.
  

Black Umfolosi, Zimbabwe

Black Umfolosi are a multi-discipline performing arts group, based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. They have become an internationally acclaimed harmonic acappella singing and traditional African dance group. Black Umfolosi, tour extensively to Australia, Asia, Europe, Canada and the USA.

Their dynamic live performances showcase the traditional dancing styles of the Southern African region as well as the more contemporary styles and movements they develop themselves. Black Umfolosi is much more than a performing group; they are active in training others, particularly the youth, in dance and voice. They try to identify and develop up and coming groups and mentor them along their path to success. They provide workshops in dance, voice, theatre, costume design, poetry, mime and also address various issues affecting society today.

In short, Black Umfolosi are a community driven organization aiming to give back to people what they themselves have received. The group run various outreach programmes both at home and internationally, and does a lot of development educational work with universities, hospitals, prisons, community centres and other arts institutions.

Their message is peace, love and understanding between cultures, and their show a feast of miraculous and sublime a cappella harmonies from the South of Africa.
   

Dunja Knebl i Domaći, Croatia

Dunja Knebl was born in Zagreb. She has lived in the USA, Indonesia and Russia. Most of her life she was a translator and language teacher whereas her favourite hobby had always being singing folk songs from different countries. After discovering in 1993 that thousands of folk songs from her own country had never been recorded, she began interpreting and recording songs she finds in books.

Besides recording six albums, she has participated on many compilations and has been nominated for the Croatian Porin (music) award twice. She is the sole author and performer of two theatre performances where she sings songs from the countries she has lived in. Besides taking part in various gigs/concerts/festivals/shows in Croatia and abroad, she has workshops where she teaches participants to sing traditional folk songs.
Her repertory is very wide, and now includes several hundred Croatian folk songs alone.

She performs to her own guitar or small percussion accompaniment, or in combinations with different musicians. In Solin she will perform with Gordana and Miroslav Evacic who will join her on a cymbal and a guitar.
Info: www.dunjaknebl.com
   

Seckou Keita, Senegal

This multitalented artist, with a fantastic musical family pedigree, represents the emergence of a new generation of African musicians.
Seckou Keita has a unique style which blends melody with rhythm.
Although his father is from Mali, Seckou grew up in one of the established griot families in Senegal where his mother comes from. Under their influence he accepted kora, traditional 21 stringed harp-lute instrument and also became an excellent percussionist.

At the age of 12 he formed his first group, Coute Diomboulou. His international career took off in 1996 while performing at festival in Norway, India and Cuba. Two years later Seckou becomes a member of the famous Baka Beyond and performes all around Europe including concerts at Glastonbury festival and WOMAD.
However, he still appears at many venues as a solo performer impressing the audience with his connection with own roots and talent in playing either kora or percussions.

Ethnoambient Salona welcomes him and his three musicians in presenting what critics name "Senegalese Soul/Afro blues".

   
Mojmir Novaković i KRIES, Croatia

Mojmir Novakovic starts exploring ancient chants and traditional music since 1992 when he formed band Legen, together with Darko Pecotic. In the following ten years Legen successfully presented their own fusion of traditional and contemporary music while performing throughout the world,making music for movie and theatre plays, recording albums and participating at various world music compilation albums. In 2002 members of Legen decided to take a break from each other and Mojmir formed a new group which got a name "Kries" which means "bonfire" in archaic form of Croatian language.

In the first year of this band's existence, they made music for "Konjanik" ("Horseman"), movie by famous Croatian director Branko Ivanda and in 2004. they published their first album "Ivo i Mara" (Kopito records), inspired by traditional poems and songs which talk about Ivo and Mara, two main characters in most of the Slavic myths.

Mojmir goes on in his explorations and researches of Croatian traditional songs, bringing them, with Kreso Oreski and Ivo Letunic, into here and now. Traditional songs of his people and culture are foundation of his work and the biggest inspiration, but he likes to apply them to all that this modern global village is offering and leaves an impact on him. As a result, the ancient Slavic mythological characters will come alive not only through the rhythm of lijerica, the traditional Croatian instrument, but also through djembe, the traditional instrument of Africa and through the contemporary electro - sounds.
Info: www.kries.info
  

Vokalisti Salone, Croatia

Vokalisti Salone are one of the best a capella singers in Croatia, with deep awareness of their own music roots and characteristics of Mediterranean. They have been preserving and promoting the heritage of many valuable folk songs and ancient sacral music.

Their programme encompasses also arrangements of contemporary composers who choose tradition to be the base of their creation.
By careful selection of members and continous work on their repertoire in thirty years of existance this a capella group has managed to maintain high quality sound which has always been recognized by those who appreciate fine arts. Their singing has been heard at many concerts in Croatia and abroad.

Another reason for being one of the best a capella singers in Croatia is because they have always been instructed by well known experts, such as : D. Tambaca, I. Cvitanovic, dr. N. Buble, R. Kraljevic, I. Lipanovic, G. Grubisic, LJ. Stipisic, prof. Vladan Vuletin. Today they are being trained by famous Croatian composer Ljubo Stipisic - Delmata who, altogether has been dedicated to them for 15 years.