Skopje, 26 January 2026 (MIA) — Two compositions by Macedonian composer Ana Pandevska will be performed as part of the ECLAT Festival of New Music taking place Feb. 4-9 in Stuttgart, Germany, the Composers Union of Macedonia SOKOM said in a press release.

Pandevska's "Electroacoustic mantra: From Ex YU to EU" for Soprano, Mezzo-soprano and Fixed Media (2023) and "Electroacoustic mantra: From Ex YU to EU – Pass the Word / Clap Game" for Six Voices & Tape (2025) will be performed at the festival's "Balkan Affairs" concert by the experimental vocal music septet Neue Vocalsolisten.

According to the release, the first composition was inspired "by the long and complex process of Macedonia's European integration after the breakup of Yugoslavia." 

"Through vocal and electronic structures, the work problematizes the transformation of the state and identity narrative, media and political repetition as well as the process of changing the name of the state — from the Republic of Macedonia, through the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to North Macedonia," the SOKOM release said.

"In 'Pass the Word / Clap Game,' bureaucratic and diplomatic communication is presented as a game in which rules, vetoes and regulations take on absurd dimensions. Humor is consciously used as a way of releasing accumulated tension, but beneath the surface remains a critical message about endless waiting, cultural adaptation and constant external blockades related to constitutional, linguistic and identity issues," the release said.

"In a broader context, the works also open up the topic of how small nations communicate with large systems and how the individual artistic voice survives in the political and institutional noise," it added.

According to ECLAT festival organizers, the "Balkan Affairs" concert features works by seven composers from former Yugoslavia reflecting on the Balkan Wars and interpreting their shared history in their own way.

"Sober, ironic or sarcastic, the seven works speak of existential experiences in the clash of religions and ethnicities, of nationalism, ex-Yu nostalgia and EU hype, hyperinflation, physical and psychological violence, and the radical optimism of a post-war generation. A concert of great media and aesthetic diversity and utmost urgency," organizers wrote. mr/