The first festival of the Ensemble for Other New Music, Patterns & Stitches, will take place across three cities: Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Zrenjanin. It is designed as a platform for broader engagement in our region. Unlike other similar festivals in Europe, which market musical minimalism as one of the commercial electronic genres, our concept is focused primarily on artistic and aesthetic criteria, integrating minimalist music into the increasingly growing mega-genre of “new contemporary classical.”
The festival is being held at a time marking seven years since the ensemble’s reformation in 2017 and 47 years since its founding. It holds special significance because, in 2024, Belgrade will host an important gathering of the Society for Minimalist Music, which meets biennially and tracks the European and American minimalist music scenes.
On the festival’s opening day, November 2, at the Balkan cinema, the new ADNM album Ovo nije Op.1 will be released on all digital platforms and as a limited edition CD, under the Pop Depresija label.
The festival will feature notable guests from the minimalist music world: composer Mary Jane Leach (USA) and composer and pianist Alfonso Peduto (USA/Italy). Their profiles will be presented through words and music, with conversations led by musicologist Ivana Prica and music journalist Ivana Ljubinković.
The festival program also highlights significant anniversaries. The Belgrade concert will celebrate 50 years since the release of the iconic album Tubular Bells by British composer Mike Oldfield, coinciding with his 70th birthday, while the Novi Sad concert on November 21 at the Synagogue will commemorate the 90th birthday of Gavin Bryars. Following this, ADNM will travel to Liverpool to join Bryars himself for another concert celebrating his milestone.
The final concert in Zrenjanin on December 14 will feature works by Serbian, European, and American representatives of the minimalist music movement.
