Konstantin Katsarsky is an artist who has long been known to the local audience. Percussionist, drummer and DJ, he had been a part of Bluba Lu for many years. The band had been popular with its experimental sound. Continuing this trend, Kosyo Katsarsky created his own project – Koka Mass Jazz. The first album was published under American label Cold Busted. It had considerable success and reached the BBC charts, as well as charts in other foreign countries. A second album is already a fact. It is titled Elephunky Trip. The name is an association with the heavy elephant and its walking style, hinting at the fact that it took some time for musical communication between Bulgaria, the United States and England to take place, especially when it comes to the funk sound.

In Bulgaria Kosyo has been working with singers Christa Kokorska from Bulgaria and Tiffany Blu from the USA, as well as with rapper Boyan Levchev, who has been living and working in the US for many years. These are the vocalists on the album. Instrumentalists at Elephunky Trip include Milen Kukosharov – piano, Martin Tashev – trumpet, Dimitar Lyolev – saxophone and guitarists Georgi Yanev and Evden Dimitrov. The album contains seven pieces, one of which is instrumental. The style is a mix of new funk, R&B and soul, new jazz, with hints of afro-rhythms. Elephunky Trip offers a contemporary and modern sound, suitable for a club and in full harmony with world music trends. The album has entered the catalog of European label Time Warp Music. BBC Music Radio host Craig Charles has given a very high rating to the album and has supported the song Play The Game featuring Tiffany Blu on his Funk & Soul show.

Koka Mass Jazz fans first heard the music of the new album at this year's Apolonia International Art Festival - 2018 in early September.

“The Apollonia concert took place before the album's official release. Then, on September7, we uploaded it on the biggest European music platform, Juno Download. There it reached first place in the sales chart. A little later it found its place on all world platforms. Promotion in Sofia took place at the end of October. During the last two months we played at three festivals. We had the opportunity to see the audience reaction and it was impressive, giving us a lot of positive energy. We choose very carefully the places we perform in, as we want the best sound. I would like to thank the BNR for the fact that the media supports our music and plays it. This is very important for us as this is the radio that is listened to all over Bulgaria and abroad.”

“There are listeners of this music in Bulgaria and it makes us happy and motivates us," Christa adds. “The atmosphere at our concerts was very nice and cheerful. There were many smiles and I'm happy to be part of this band, I'm grateful to them that they have invited me to sing together. I had to learn over ten songs for just three days for our first concert. It was a very intense, but also a positive experience. The music of Koka Mass Jazz has not been written with the aim to be in line with current global trends. These are Kosyo's wonderful ideas, shared with friends in the band.”

English: Alexander Markov