A Platform for Ethnically and Culturally Inspired Music
6 times in the Global Top 40
About "Infinitesimally Insignificant"
Featuring:
Vladimir Velichkov - kaval & kaval percussion
James Hill - trumpet

THEME:
As humans, we take ourselves far too seriously. Our world has always been divided by those who feel that their own voice is the only true voice. Monsters brutally rule others through ideologies, politics and money.

Humans delude themselves of their own self-importance. Yet, “on the scale of worlds or galaxies - humans are inconsequential, a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal.” (Carl Sagan)

Perhaps by understanding our universal insignificance, we can find the courage to more kindly behave towards one another, and to preserve and cherish our “pale blue dot” in the universe, the only home we’ve ever known.

About VLADIMIR VELICHKOV (Bulgaria)
Vladimir is a virtuoso musician performing on the kaval musical instrument, as well as a composer and professor at the Bulgarian Music Academy in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where he teaches “Kaval, Chamber Ensembles, Orchestra and Theoretical Disciplines”. He has a doctorate degree in “The Art of Kaval - Tradition and Modernity”.

The kaval is a woodwind instrument, characteristic of Bulgarian folklore music. Extracting sound and tone from the kaval is extremely difficult. Vladimir achieves an extremely varied sound by using new techniques such as playing two or three notes simultaneously while singing into the instrument; using the “voiced air column” effect where the whistling of air passes through the instrument at a certain pitch and a melody is played - the so-called “whistling wind” effect; overflow of several registers in one or two octaves; and playing percussion effects.
https://youtube.com/@VladimirVelichkov0205?si=i6ZhJEmvSR4Z5HIF

About JAMES HILL (USA)
Born into a musical family in Burbank, California, James began playing the trumpet at the age of nine and never stopped! “James creates a beautiful and compelling array of musical landscapes - fusing genres, styles, instruments, and rhythms into intensely evocative compositions. His music is punctuated by stellar and often haunting trumpet interludes or overlays. There are certain beautiful and pointed experiences in life on earth that should not be missed, and must be savoured…. The music of James Hill is one of these experiences.” (R. Sebastian Bennett)
https://youtube.com/@tcabstudio?si=o_z3iUDQi4K3FMty