“One of the best but not so much known yet ug rappers in Slovakia. From Košice. And his entire CLUB 17 crew are all strict contemporary rappers who don’t speak BS. Young boys, all in their twenties.” Denis Bango described this way the Oskar and Club 17 project. The young rapper Oskar is the creator of the term East Coast in the Slovak music scene. In 2020, he released his debut Nonsense, which transforms his view of everyday reality into his poetry (as commented on by Hudba.sk) He is currently working on the project “East Coast pt. II”, with which plans to change the view of the Czecho-Slovak audience on rap culture in eastern Slovakia. At Pohoda, he, Rikko, and Ower will present their new project, as well as new stuff and tracks that the audience is already familiar with. → read more

“A buddy from Prešov, hard-worker, released an album at the end of the year, which made him more noticed. Another rapping punk.”, says the Garáž curator of another name of his choice. Dušan Vlk will bring LO-FI and trap influenced by a pinch of punk atmosphere to the Garáž stage. In December came out his debut ASTHMABOY and it was introduced to public at the Kulturák club in Bratislava. The Generácia rapu portal described the album: “Duški likes Kulturák, Kulturák likes Duški and you could feel that. Most of the songs on his Asthmaboy album are as if they were created for these premises, so it’s no wonder that everything worked out exactly as it should.”  → read more

“Youngsters from Trnava. All are from 15 to 20 years old. They are excited, they mean it deadly serious, and they do it well. The enthusiasm and all this will cause so much on the Slovak scene also in future.” This is how band Hyperpunk was presented to us by Denis Bango, who picked them for Saturday’s line-up in Garáž. → read more

“Conceptual humorous metalcore, where the guys created their alternative universe. They quickly became very popular on the scene, with strong anti-fascist references. Priama čepeľ are a sort of a project in a project. Sometimes they give a concert as three projects in one together with TATROFKA 20025000, which are all actually the same people :D...” said about bands Brizolit and Priama čepeľ our Denis Bango, who picked them together with Ahoj! and Berlin Menson for the Friday night line-up in Garáž. → read more

“Impeccable perfect pumped up the best Slovak punk with female vocals. People not originally coming from Trnava but rooted in Trnava. They do things around Kubík.” says about the band Ahoj the Garáž curator Denis Bango. We know what he’s talking about, as Ahoj! have already played at Pohoda—last year, at its “on the Ground” version. We are glad to see them coming again. → read more

“Such a new wave stuff, very good, you need to hear it :D” wrote Denis Bango, the curator of the Garáže stage at Pohoda, aka the leader of the Trnava band The Wilderness and the KVLT CREW project, about the band Berlin Manson. The Garáž stage will reopen its tin gates every day after the programme on the main stage is over, to show where quality new music is being born. We start this year’s Denis’s selection with the post-synth punk duo Berlin Manson, which sings / raps about Depeche Mode, spaceships and soundcloud trends, while drowning in waves of melancholic synthesizers. They balance on the verge of the analog and the digital, ironically commenting on what is happening on the scene, but at the same time they are a fresh part of it in the form of an unexpected system error. Berlin Manson are an example of a complete genre, production, and attitude freedom, without trying to fit somewhere 100 percent. → read more

Pohoda 2022 will also see a Slovak-Norwegian duo Michaela Antalová and Adrian Myhr. Michaela is a Slovak composer, multi-instrumentalist and improviser based in Oslo. As a jazz drummer, she is a part of projects Mikoo, PIO or Love_Me and also plays with bands Dunajská vlna, Květy as well as with distinctive representatives of the impro scene such as Martin Küchen and Chris Corsano. This time around at Pohoda, however, she will put the drumsticks aside and will play on fujara flute together with a Norwegian contrabassist Adrian Myhr. Last year, they released album titled Zvony representing a kind of a sound bridge between Slovak and Norwegian traditional music. → read more

Barbora Tomášková, an extraordinarily inventive young author, will also debut at Pohoda. The former student at VŠMU (The Academy of Performing Arts, program: Composition) and VŠVU (The Academy of Fine Arts and Design, program: Sculpture) can be characterized by her unconventional approach to music-making and its live implementation. She combines live electronic music with objet trouvé as well as with her own DIY sound objects she designed and constructed during her studies at VŠVU in Bratislava. Barbora is the author of a made-to-order concert for NEXT Festival, she collaborates with the Czech Radio and composes scenic music and film scores. Last year, she became the Konvergencie competition prizewinner and her composition for solo piano was selected for the World New Music Days in China organized by ISCM (The International Society for Contemporary Music).   → read more

Following their premiere at Pohoda on the Ground, God and Eve are coming to Pohoda 2022 as well. The band is Eva Sajanová and Richard Grimm (Max Bazowski, Raptor Koch, Boh Vajec). They are both studying music composition and love contemporary classical music, jazz as well as artpop. Eva composes music, writes lyrics and makes recordings of initial song versions. Richard then focuses on arrangements and production. Together, they fine-tune them until they reach their final form. Their debut EP The Creation was released in February 2021 via Slnko Records label. According to Hudba.sk portal, they confirm their uniqueness with their second EP The Fastest Way to Deep Clean a House. During their live performances, the duo is accompanied by Marek Buranovský on guitar,  Jakub Kačic on bass and Tomáš Hríbik on drums. Currently, they are working on their debut album and, today, they are representing Slovakia’s music scene at Ment, a showcase festival taking place in Ljubljana. → read more

Timea quickly became very popular on the domestic scene at the end of 2020 with her debut EP “Confusion of Warmth”. Even before that, she appeared at the Pohoda in the Air festival in Trenčín, where she performed at Welcoming the Sun. Together with Norbert Daniš and Martina Repková, she was picked by our jury in a Facebook contest, and also the time confirms the obvious⸻that they chose very well. Patrik Marflák of Hudba.sk wrote in the title of the review of her EP: “A worldly voice and mature songs: Singer Timea is one of the top discoveries of 2020.” → read more