Czajka & Puchacz
Das in Slowenien ansässige Duo Czajka & Puchacz veröffentlichte im Juli 2020 sein erstes, überwiegend akustisches Album Bivališča und ließ ein Jahr später die Retro-Avant-Pop-Single Entschuldigung ihres Alter-Duos Kiebitz & Uhu folgen. Seit ihrer zweiten Veröffentlichung, die sich mit experimentellem Songwriting im Bereich des Existenzialismus und der Abstraktion des täglichen Lebens befasste, hat das Paar weiterhin Wege erforscht, um sofortiges Songwriting mit der Ästhetik der europäischen Schule der freien Improvisation und dem Idiom der musique concrete zu verschmelzen, die auf Bivališča zu hören sind. (Pressetext)

Jure Pukl & Marko Churnchetz
Jure Pukl was awarded highest national award for contribution to Arts in Slovenia (Nagrada Prešernovega sklada 2015) and is one of the most prolific and creative saxophonists of the younger Slovene jazz generation. Pukl obtained university education abroad and studied classical and jazz saxophone at the University in Vienna as well as at the Haag Conservatory of Music. Pukl then won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, where he pursued his studies with masters such as Joe Lovano and George Garzone. He completed his masters degree in music at the Graz Academy of Music.

Throughout his studies Pukl performed and recorded extensively, being engaged in his own projects, as well as working with a number of great musicians from different fields in music such as Dave Liebman, Branford Marsalis, Esperanza Spalding, George Lewis, Maceo Parker, Vijay Iyer, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Gregory Hutchinson, Damion Reid, Darius Jones, Doug Hammond, Gerald Cleaver, Adam Rogers, Melissa Aldana, Rodney Green, Charles Altura, Joe Sanders, Aaron Goldberg, Marcus Gilmore, Johnathan Blake and orchestras like Big Band RTV Slovenia, European Jazz Orchestra, European Movement Jazz Orchestra, Vienna Saxophone Quartet and many others.

His music has won him many awards and in his auctorial projects, such as the Doubtless, Broken Circles, Abstract Society, MEAT or Sound Pictures, Pukl dedicates himself to modern interpretations of jazz and improvised music.

What he creates is a unique type of modern jazz, avantgarde, free jazz and impressionistic contemporary music performed with a great deal of knowledge and love, giving prominence to the interplay between band members. He published 8 Albums under his own name and received rave reviews all over the globe among others in the influential Downbeat, The New York Times, Jazzwise, Jazz Podium and All About Jazz. He is also featured on more than 50 other projects as a sideman. (allaboutjazz.com)

Marko Churnchetz (Slovenian spelling Črnčec) is one of Slovenia's most heralded contemporary musicians and renowned exports, based in New York City. On the international scene he is known as a formidable young multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and producer who easily works across genres and in particular jazz, classical and popular music.

Churnchetz was born May 15, 1986 in Maribor, Slovenia and by the age of age six his musical path began by studying
 classical music on accordion and then piano at the age of ten. A prodigious talent, by his teens he was a multiple award-winner in both national and international competitions, and he earned a classical piano degree in 2005 as well as jazz piano degree at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria in 2009.

Churnchetz has released six albums as a leader. His third highly critically acclaimed album Devotion (Whirlwind Recordings, 2014), featuring Mark Shim (saxophone), Chris Tordini (double bass) and Justin Brown (drums) was selected among 20 Best Jazz releases of 2014 by "All About Jazz"!

Churnchetz's album PLACE TO LIVE (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2019) features his outstanding jazz trio with Harish Raghavan on doublebass and Justin Brown on drums. On two tracks the trio is joined by vocalist Jonathan Hoard, who co-wrote the title song of the album. French "Jazz Magazine" called it "Revelation!"

Marko has performed or recorded with the following notable artists: Jonathan Kreisberg, Billy Hart, Eric Harland, Seamus Blake, Rez Abbasi, Joe Locke, Mike Moreno, Wayne Escoferry, Joe Sanders, Alex Sipiagin, John Ellis, Luis Bonilla, Mark Shim, Justin Brown, Marcus Gilmore, Suresh Talwalkar, Stefan Milenkovich, Sharat Shrivastava, and many others. (Pressetext)