TAPAN is the Belgrade-based production duo of one of the residents at 20/44 club Nebojša Bogdanović (Schwabe), and Goran Simonoski, the producer behind music projects Belgradeyard Sound System, Piece of Shh, and a number of theater scores and ghost productions.
Both are present in the Belgrade music and nightlife scenes since the 1990s and are now joining forces of their diverse musical experience in a collaborative creative act of producing songs under the TAPAN moniker. Tapan is not an ordinary “techno” project and escapes any easy categorizations. The project evolved into a full live quartet, building connections between electronic sonics, jazz improvisation and unique pulse of eastern percussive orientalism. The duo was joined by the saxophone player Jamal Al Kiswani (Belgradeyard, Belgrade Noise Society), and renowned Serbian percussionist Feđa Franklin, but the scope of collaborations with other local and international instrumentalists keeps expanding,
They have released four EPs so far, followed by the epic debut album “Europa” in late 2017 for Malka Tuti. This double-LP is dedicated to and inspired by events in 2015 and 2016, which saw the specter of global crisis come knocking at Europe’s doorstep. One of the most well-trodden paths on this journey was the Balkan route, a trail leading through Turkey, Greece, and the former Yugoslavia. During this time, more than a million migrants and refugees fled their homes in the Middle East, Northern Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and other conflict-ravaged areas in search of a better life. For many, hopes of a future for themselves and their families lay in continental Europe.
“Europa” was recorded during long jam sessions in Belgrade as the media spotlight started to dim. The city became the purgatorial destination for a large number of migrants, whose journeys had been cut short. This double LP reflects the atmosphere of disillusionment and uncertainty about the future, of Europe and the world at large. Dark and melancholic saxophone playing on top of heavy kicks and Mediterranean percussions dominate the epic, 17-minute title track. The collaboration with Jerusalem In My Heart (Radwan Ghazi Moumneh) continues the melancholic atmosphere, adding JIMH’s signature delayed bağlama sounds, to create a 12-minute emotional journey, tearing away abstract concepts of “longing” and “home” with ever-growing tension and magnitude.
Genre-less, elusive and not easy to categorize, Tapan’s debut album on Malka Tuti is an original soundtrack of a fragment in time and space, capturing a moment and transcending it musically for the rest of the world to experience. With remixes coming from Abul Mogard and other renowned artists (they have already been remixed by Black Merlin, Drvg Cvltvre and Timothy J. Fairplay), as well as many forthcoming live sessions and collaborations, Tapan seem to have just opened the door for their musical explorational journey that promises to open new musical horizons to both them and us.
Tapan (Belgrade, RS):
Goran Simonoski (elektronics)
Nebojša Bogdanović (electronics)
Džemal Al Kiswani (saxophone/flute)
Fedja Franklin (drums/percussion)
Ulaz slobodan
Links:
https://soundcloud.com/tapanbg
https://tapan.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RblJzGEJVCI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iov3hsSpiIw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqIoliz1YB4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpCipelamKY