Jordan Vladev is a multi-instrumental musician, a superb performer but also narrator of musical tales – as proven by his latest album entitled Playtime. In it, the musician has included eight pieces.

“The album features pieces that I would describe, stylistically, as jazz, but they also include funk elements, with predominantly asymmetric metres. The compositions are entirely my own. In Playtime, I have invited friends and colleagues to guest perform. I myself play several instruments – piano, guitar and bass. My wife, Tanya Nikleva-Vladova who is a choir conductor also takes part in the album, but here she plays the flute. Another magnificent musician I have partnered up with is pianist Kalin Zhechev. Andrey Velkov – drums and percussion – is another one of the musicians featured in Playtime. For the “live” performances I have invited Italian bass guitarist Daniele Febbo who is currently a student at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music. And for the last piece I invited Nikolay Nikolov who also plays the bass guitar. It took three years of work to release this album. It was an old dream of mine – to release an instrumental album with these particular pieces. I usually compose music for the stage, music for children and film music. Perhaps that is the reason why I only got round to recording Playtime now. Its official premiere was at the end of last year in Studio No. 5 of the National Palace of Culture. I am happy with the publicity it has received.”

Jordan Vladev says that this is the tenth, or perhaps eleventh album of his music. And adds that what matters to him is not how many albums he has released, but the message his music conveys. What genres were his previous projects in? Jordan Vladev:

“The first project comprised my own songs for children. But the second one was a collaboration with the children from the “Kids” children’s acting workshop. My idea was to involve children with their own ideas of melodies and lyrics. So, that was a joint project. Several of the songs from that album were included in school songbooks, and deservedly – like Camel Story, for example, or the song Goat which won the Sweet-voiced Skylark children’s song contest in Bourgas. This was followed by projects for film and stage music, and some of them I hold particularly dear. Among them is the White Plague and Serdiricon, the latter combining ancient legends from the age of the ancient city of Serdica. It was presented amidst the ancient ruins discovered next to the rotunda in the centre of Sofia.”

An instrumentalist, music arranger and composer, Jordan Vladev also lectures – together with his wife, he founded a music centre called Art Libitum.

“That was another dream of mine which came to fruition seven years ago. We wanted to help more people make their own dreams come true, just like we have done, by bringing them in contact with the art of music in different forms. As any other beginning, it was not easy, but we succeeded and Art Libitum has been developing really well. And it is not just children who come to the music centre. Together with my colleagues we teach different instruments – piano, guitar, bass guitar, flute, percussion, pop, rock and jazz singing. But also – sound engineering, conducting, orchestration, arrangement, synthesizers. These are all things that are of interest to people who find it difficult to combine what they want with a university degree in music. Here they are able to obtain training in a specific field.”

The audio file features the following pieces by Jordan Vladev:

- Spring;

- Run;

- Serdiricon;

- Funky;

- Chocolate ice cream.

English version: Milena Daynova