Ilija Ludvig

The Belgrade singer-songwriter Ilija Ludvig emerged from musical anonymity in 2007, appearing on the compilation Jutro će promeniti sve? (Morning Will Change Everything?), rated as a great release by PGP RTS. The compilation offered songs of home-grown musicians who were those days making announcing their arrival – the bands Goribor, Repetitor, Nežni Dalibor and The Mothership Orchestra. But, even among such tough competition, Ilija’s exceptional number Mikonos shined in its full glory…

Today, Ilija Ludvig is – judging by the announcements for his ever more frequent performances – the underground king of Belgrade! “Ilija plays the guitar and sings, has stand-ups during concerts, expressing himself through songs and visually, engaged in a fight against all injustices of this world, always eager to show how much he cares about every single person in the audience. Ilija is a poet, entertainer, musician. He’s Woody Guthrie, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and Billy Bragg, and Lou Reed”, note the fans.

– It is the end of the 25th year since little Ilija stubbornly asked for and finally received from his pa’ a guitar. And from then on the constant need for creating is not wavering one bit – tells us Ilija Ludvig. – I grew up with the vibrant tapes played in the car on route to Asprovalta, but also on video cassettes filled with concerts, films, videos and San Remo. And with Bajaga. That created a nice, fertile ground for all that later came to me.

And what came were Ilija’s numerous interesting indie pop and rock songs – which you can hear on the address http://il.yillit.com/ or as part of his bandcamp channel http://ilijaludvig.bandcamp.com/. As for his official releases, Ilija is represented on the popular pop-depressive compilations Pesme ispod pokrivača (Songs From Under The Covers) (2013) and Jason Molina Tribute: Just Be Simple (2014).

To the Street Musicians Festival Ilija will bring his guitar and his loops and beats. It is left to be seen will he be dressed as Dionysus or Hermes… “I experience the performance as a ceremony. As such, it demands a different bearing. In the name of freedom. In the name of friendship. That is always the joy of the vision, some poetic-philosophical porridge which is filtered in that which becomes the costume”, explains Ilija.

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