Press Release
Source: DI PR
Dimitar Ivanov’s album, Solo Ten, includes themes from eight original compositions by the composer- and International acclaimed bassist Avishai Cohen including two of his arrangements of traditional pieces.
Dimitar talked to Guitar International about his new album.
“All the ten pieces are from five different albums released by Avishai Cohen, and in this recording I combine them with rhythms, modes, ornaments and other stylistic features of Balkan traditional music. Those symbioses came both from my great appreciation of the music by Avishai and from my recent interests and roots in the Balkan music, evolved in different aspects and directions that I have explored and found. Avishai’s use of odd-meter and his natural rhythmic abilities was also one of my basic motivations to go further and mix it with the Balkan idiom. The general musical structures I used are also related and inspired by those used by Avishai, creating a more intimate approach between different contexts and their musical features.
In all the pieces I replaced jazz improvisations with written, prepared composed parts. I found it more efficient to have two or more written-out voices than the content I could do within an improvised section. In this way I kept a higher range of possibilities of my instrument. However, in the future development of this repertory it could be possible to combine improvisations with the written-through sections.
Most of the presented pieces in this album were never played on solo guitar before. The performance on those works on my instrument is also a kind of innovative musical translation that I have the pleasure to share with others.”
ABOUT DIMITAR IVANOV
Dimitar Ivanov hails from Silistra, Bulgaria, where he has taken part in regional and national guitar competitions. In 2005 he began his musical studies at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. In 2006 he began his Bachelor followed by his Master of performance in 2012 and finished with his Master of pedagogy in 2014 at the Conservatory of Sion (Switzerland), with the guitarist and pedagogue George Vassilev.
He has performed or participated in masterclasses with Dusan Bogdanovic, Zoran Dukic, Kaltchev Duo, Francis Coletta among others and has written arrangements of contemporary works by Leo Brouwer, Dusan Bogdanovic and many others.
Dimitar is a member of various groups, performing at prestigious Swiss festivals including Cully Classique and Forum Wallis in Sion. His participation as leader, co- leader and sideman in different musical formations led him to tour widely throughout Bulgaria, Switzerland and Canada in addition to giving solo recitals in France, England and Germany. Since 2014 his concert repertoire features contemporary composers inspired by Balkan music.
He recorded and produced the album “Beyond Borders” for guitar/violin/cello trio in 2015 and in 2017 Dimitar recorded the album “Balkan Fragments“ with the cellist Noémy Braun.
Between 2015 and 2018 Dimitar studied in sound recording program at Zurich University of the Arts where he developed his work entitled “Through the right translation” exposing the relation between the musical performance and the sound recording processes. This project brings him a DAS (Diploma of Advanced Studies).
For several years his parallel interests to the Brazilian music and polyrhythmic lead Dimitar to develop a new repertory and in 2018 to a record of a new album in a quartet formation “Quatro Vozes” with music from the Brazilian multi-instrumentist and composer Egberto Gismonti.
Between September 2018 and July 2019 Dimitar studied in HEM Geneva with Dusan Bogdanovic where he developed a new repertory with his arrangements of music based on original compositions and arrangements by Avishai Cohen performed with his 10- strings guitar. As a result in September 2019 Dimitar recorded his new album “Solo Ten”.
Links :
Website : www.dimitarivanov.org
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCss5mwLJb1D82mi-_rqGRFA/featured
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Dimitar.Ivanov.Music
Spotify :
https://open.spotify.com/album/4CxfBmm11Y5Hht9i0tm0zm?si=pRTOLhwHTJ2voU965TrTRQ
AppleMusic : https://music.apple.com/ch/album/solo-ten/1487818829?l=fr
