Inspiration

Cover art of 'The Storyteller'

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

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”

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

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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The best books on Slovenian popular folk music and Oberkrainer music

There are some great books I’ve been reading (albeit slowly, in Slovene) that I’d like to share with you, about Slovenian popular folk music, and more specifically Slavko and Vilko Avsenik who started and shaped the entire genre of ‘narodnozabavna glasba’ (Slovene for popular folk music) or ‘Oberkrainer’ (German name of the genre derived from

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Advanced accordion excercises and songs by Andrej Toplišek – “Stücke für Akkordeonprofis”

It’s probably evident that I’m a fan of Andrej Toplišek’s work, which also extends into educational content for accordionists in the Slovenian/Oberkrain style. Released by Alpengold Harmonikas, “Stücke für Akkordeonprofis” which translates to “Songs for accordion professionals” is aimed at accordionists who want to improve their skills, to be able to play more technical songs.

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The first new Oberkrainer album on vinyl

The first new Oberkrainer/Narodnozabavna album on vinyl (since the end of vinyl pressings in Slovenia and Austria) has been released by Andrej Toplišek Septett, called Postkarte aus Slowenien (Postcard from Slovenia). It features top Oberkrainer style musicians and vocalists from Slovenia and Austria; Andrej Toplišek (formerly Okrogli Muzikanti, accordion), Sandi Jug (Quintett Juchee, lead vocalist), Mojca

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