Svilen Noev, the lead vocalist of "Ostava" band, has presented in Sofia his first solo album entitled “Different”. Since the start of summer people could listen to the single “Beautiful” playing on the radio, as well as on various Internet platforms. The musician is already ready with an official video for the song Different.

“The album was released not long ago,” Svilen Noev says. “The single called Different, gave the name to the project. My idea is, both through the album and the single, to make it clear that there is difference in comparison to what I've been doing with the Ostava band for over 20 years. ‘Different’ sounds very different in comparison to Ostava's music for several reasons: it's not so melancholic; there are not so many guitars and the sound atmosphere is different. The style is more similar to indie pop music. In this solo project I have used various instruments – banjo, mandolin, saxophone. All artists who participated in creating the album came to its presentation. I worked most with Georgi Stanev (producer of Gravity Co) and Daniel Petrov (drummer of Ostava). I have a song with Krassimir Todorov (pianist of Jeremy?). The song is called ‘Minute’ and will be released as a single in the spring. Guitarist Ivo Chalakov also plays in it. Misho Shishkov plays the banjo and mandolin in the song ‘Different’. Ventsi Trifonov is the saxophonist in the song ‘You’ and Michaela Fileva sings with me in ‘Chronometer’ - this is my only song in Bulgarian and I think it should be my next single. There are six songs and two bonus tracks in my album - very beautiful compositions that I did not have time to finish but sound great as if they come from a live recording.”

Another important difference according to Svilen Noev between the songs of Ostava and those in Different is that Ostava’s songs are mostly in Bulgarian, while Svilen’s solo album is mostly in English. The musician thinks that when lyrics are nice and meaningful, language does not matter.

“I went to sea with friends and my wife Nevena offered to make a video," Svilen continues. "It was quite spontaneous. Our son, singer Victoria of Mastilo band, actor Yavor Baharov, young actress Raya Peeva and other friends of ours participate in it. I think all people watching this video would feel a slight nostalgia for the summer. ‘Different’ is already being distributed all across the country. Digital platforms are the other very important places for distribution of music nowadays. This way you never know who and where listens to your songs. For me, this fact is particularly exciting. I believe my album will reach a wide audience. So far electronic media have shown approval and the songs are often played. I have invitations to promote the album in several different cities in Bulgaria, but I want to take a little more time and see what people think about it. Cover artwork is the work of Marian Dzin, a friend of mine, who is a poster artist. He has made all the covers and posters for "Ostava" over the years. We used black and white photos I have shot.”

English: Alexander Markov