Cover art of 'The Storyteller'

Andrej Toplišek’s experimental Oberkrainer music project “The Storyteller”

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Andrej Toplišek is a Slovenian musician at the forefront of experimental Slovenian and Alpine folk music in the ‘Oberkrainer’ style which was created over half a century ago by the Avsenik brothers from Slovenia. I’ve previously written about his projects Postkarte aus Slowenien and Tradicija in Umetnost as well as his accordion method book. I’d […]

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Andrej Toplišek’s new Oberkrainer and Jazz creations – “Tradicija in umetnost” and “Hometown suite”

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Andrej Toplišek’s first independent Oberkrainer album after his time with Okrogli Muzikantje (Runden Oberkrainer) was a LP called “Postkarte aus Slowenien” which he released in 2019. I wrote about it then (linked here), simply because it was the first time in years that I’ve been so excited about a new album in the Narodnozabavna and

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Denis Novato sheet music book #2

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I’m very grateful to have been offered the opportunity to contribute to Denis Novato’s second book, published by Musikverlag Bogner in Germany. This book contains 10 Novato compositions, in both Griffschrift notation for Steirische Harmonika (diatonic button accordion) by Hubert Klausner (zillertal-noten.at) and standard notation for accordion by myself. It is accompanied by a CD

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Uncovering information on the rare O.R.A Alpin piano accordions

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Last year I purchased an intriguing accordion from willhaben.at, a second hand Alpin IIIC by O.R.A Castelfidardo, whose only label on the instruments reads “Harmonikafabrik O.R.A”. (Shoutout to the seller Roman, who was very transparent and helpful during the sale, and my friend Klemens who visited Roman and provided videos for me 🙋‍♂️👋.) Several things

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Slovenian ‘Oberkrainer’ accordion rhythm technique for waltzes

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For a brief historical explanation of the technique and a video on how to use this technique in polkas, click on the article below. Waltzes in the Oberkrainer accordion rhythm technique (Slo: tresanje or spremljavo, Ger: begleitung) involve playing chords in quavers (eighth notes) repeatedly and smoothly in 3/4 time, with no bellow shaking. Below

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Slovenian popular folk ‘Oberkrainer’ vs. American-Slovenian ‘Cleveland style’

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If you’re new to Slovenian popular folk music (from Slovenia) or American-Slovenian style polkas (from North America), you might get confused between the two (I sure did), so in this post I try to clear it up with the sort of information I’d love to have had available several years ago.

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