Sirom | Artist

Širom is Slovenian trio formed 2015 in the Prekmurje region by multi-instrumentalists Iztok Koren, Ana Kravanja and Samo Kutin. Širom play experimental folk music fusing polyphony and psychedelic music with folk, classical and improvisational elements. The band themselves refer to their music as "imaginary folk." The band is characterised by its diverse, exotic and obscure sound palettes that make up their immersive soundscapes using instruments as diverse as hurdy-gurdy, banjo, tempura brač, ocarina, lyre, viola, balafon, ribab, mizmar etc. Many of them come from unique homemade and prepared instruments (an acoustic resonator made from a spring and a frame drum) and found objects (bowls with rice). The band has created a unique sound world in isolation to mainstream influences, “Journalists often reference various bands we don’t know, and sometimes I check them out, only to realise that they’re very different from us,” Ana Kravanja explains. Names like Jon Hassell, Moondog, Don Cherry, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Steve Reich and Penguin Cafe Orchestra tend to pop up in their company, but they mostly function as simple reference points for potential newcomers. To-date the band has released five consistently excellent studio albums, all of which are recommended: I. (2016), I Can Be a Clay Snapper (2017), A Universe That Roasts Blossoms For a Horse (2019), The Liquified Throne of Simplicity (2022), and In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper (2025). This most recent album has been attracting strong reviews, including the following colourful description from jsw in RYM: "Širom's seventy-four minute Central European trance ritual. These Slovenian lunatics treat their hurdy gurdies and harmoniums like Coltrane treated his horn during the Ascension sessions, building those hypnotic drone clusters.. (the music) slides back into that Master Musicians of Joujouka psychedelic delirium where Brion Gysin met the infinite. This is what happens when you cross Popol Vuh's cosmic medievalism with the Velvets' viola drones and add Borges translating a Slovenian folk tale about wolves." The band name Širom is a Croation word meaning "throughout".

Artist Website: siromband.si

Featured Albums: Sirom

Related Artists: Širom, Ana Kravanga, Samo Kutin