Prominent Macedonian guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski promotes ‘Mother Tongue’ album


Prominent Macedonian  guitar player Vlatko Stefanovski promoted late Saturday in Skopje his first solo acoustic album Mother Tongue, released region-wide under the label of Croatia Records.

The last night performance, which overwhelmed the audience, was the first of the three concerts organized by Bagi Communications to promote the album release, scheduled to take place in the Macedonian Philharmonic concert hall on March 18 and 20.

The album contains nine instrumental covers of Macedonian folk songs, as well as tracks from his former rock group ‘Leb i Sol’s  oeuvre. Rade Serbedzija, an actor with international career, provides the only vocals on the album, singing the lyrics to the traditional Macedonian song ‘More Sokol Pie’.

Mother Tongue was made using minimal recording gear, Stefanovski said, pointing out that the album is intimate as it speaks to the audience directly. It was recorded in just a few days last spring.

The album cover features a photo of his mother, actress Nada Stefanovska, holding a guitar. The photo was taken during a play performance in 1946.

The special guests at Stefanovski's three concerts are the folk group Ljubojna,  Serbian folk singer Bilja Krstic and Macedonian soprano Vesna Ginovska-Ilkova.

Stefanovski is set to promote the ‘Mother Tongue’ in Serbia and Croatia on April 2 and 17 respectively.