Jaka Berger

Jaka Berger is one of the most active, creative, and diverse drummers, percussionists, composers, and improvisers in the Slovenian music scene over the past fifteen years.

In 2006, he released his debut album for the Italian label Splasch Records. Since 2014, he has been regularly creating music for a prepared drum kit, with which he releases solo works that are often published in international journals for improvised music. In 2013, he was a performer in the theater success Gremo Vsi!, directed by Mare Bulc. He regularly develops the experimental project Partija in collaboration with visual artist Matej Stupica and performs with the band Darla Smoking.

In 2015, he released an album of compositions titled Treatise by composer Cornelius Cardew. In 2016, he performed his most demanding original work, a composition for a ten-piece orchestra called Tentet of Sound Life Flow. In 2019, he released an album dedicated to composer Morton Feldman, in collaboration with pianist Dejan Berden. Additionally, he released albums with the ensembles Bootleg Unit Trio and Fresh Dust Trio for the British label FMR Records. The Fresh Dust Trio album, featuring pianist Marina Džukljev and guitarist Sam Šalamon, was named Album of the Year 2019 by the improvised music portal Centralala.

Since 2020, he has been actively re-engaging with the composition Treatise (Discussion) by composer Cornelius Cardew. He recorded the album Breakfast with Cardew, which received excellent international reviews. In 2021, after two years of active collaboration with Slovenian independent poets, he published a book of sound translations titled Poetrix.

In recent years, he has conducted percussion and music improvisation workshops and regularly teaches percussion. He continually enhances his knowledge and experience by collaborating with various musicians and improvisers from around the world, expanding the concept of workshops into broad collective creation based on improvisation and communication. Through this, he integrates music into our daily lives and uses it to teach and encourage relationships based on listening, responding, coexisting, and collaborating.