“The Whole World Stopped…” is a collaborative compilation of field recordings, a patchwork of making music and narrating, underedited ad hoc experiment, and also a celebration of friendship, a soundscape where two friends meet – Joana and Stefan, both of them colleagues at Kanal 103.

Joana is a multi-instrumentalist, though her main focus is classical guitar. She does use both classical and electric guitar throughout the recording, as well as bontempi electro-acoustic keyboard and goblet drum. Three minutes into this experimental piece, you can hear Stefan’s voice, first telling about a street scene he witnessed downtown Skopje, then reading a poem from Elizabeth Bishop (“At the Fishhouses”) and a short story from Franz Kafka (“Before the Law”). Finally, in the conclusion, a fusion of washing machine centrifuge and a mandola played with a violin bow.

The work is an undisguised communication between music and storytelling, scarcely premeditated, if at all. Most of it is recorded at Partizan Print, a studio of independent artists in Skopje, and very good friends and collaborators with Kanal 103.

Created by Joana Risteska, classic guitar master and multi-instrumentalist, and Stefan Alijevikj, fiction writer and sound seeker. You can follow their radio shows on Kanal 103 Sunday and Tuesday evenings respectively.