With his new single "Vekovna Gora", Vladi Ampov-Grafa sends a powerful message and shares his love for Bulgaria. The participation of the world-famous women's choir "The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices" has had a huge contribution to the epic sound of the song.

In "Vekovna Gora" Grafa combines uneven rhythm and electronic sounds, as well as samples of traditional folk instruments. He is the author of the song's music, lyrics, arrangement and vocal chorus lines. He recorded all the guitar and synth parts of the song, while the unexpected collaboration with Bulgaria’s legendary choir creates an atmosphere of timelessness and beauty.

"I chose to stay here, to create here, to dream here, to start a family here, because I love my country!” Grafa says sincerely and adds: “I am grateful that I could be close to the talent and professionalism of conductor Dora Hristova and the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices".

"I am very happy, because I managed to surprise myself and the people who like my music again,” says Grafa in an interview with BNR-Stara Zagora. While drifting along the waves of music in the process of composition, he came up with the idea of this "different" song. “I used a virtual instrument created by Bulgarians, through which you can play keyboard melodies on the piano, using the sound of female folk vocals – it sounds very authentic and that's how you can compose melodies and vocal lines. So I initially generated my ideas as a demo version. I told myself that if it was recorded by a large choir, it would sound majestic. "The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices" accepted with joy, as they liked the song very much. We recorded and included many different instruments. With the electronic backing that I had prepared before, a very nicely dosed combination between electro-pop, world music and folklore was obtained. People say that ‘The Mystery...’ sound very homogeneous with the pop song, because there is always a risk of eclectic mixing of pure folklore into a pop song. I'm glad I was able to reach a balance and maybe it touches people’s hearts even more. The melody led me to the lyrics, dedicated to Bulgaria, to what we have and often forget - these wonderful corners of our country, which is not so big as a territory, but is extremely diverse. The song is also a kind of metaphor for purification and for returning to traditional values and roots.”

The idea for the video belongs to director Drago Sholev, who with his inherent professional curiosity has been studying the growing role of artificial intelligence in the creation of video productions for some time. When he heard the song Sholev immediately understood that it deserves a unique video. Its rhythm, tempo and structure perfectly fit his idea of creating a visualization with the help of artificial intelligence. The video with AI-generated imagery is the first of its kind in Bulgaria.

On the occasion of the Internet premiere of his new song, Grafa published the following story on his personal Facebook page: "The legend says that when God decided to distribute land to individual nations, the Bulgarians worked in the fields and for this reason were late for their share. But God had already given away all the land. He thought about what what He could give to Bulgarians as they were known for kindness, modesty and hard work, and gave them a part of heaven.”

The song "Vekovna gora" is the pilot single and the title of Vladi Ampov's new album, which is to be released this year.

Editor: Dilyana Tracheva