Sonica Spring Edition: Abul Mogard, Raphael Roginski & Iztok Koren

Sonica Festival, which in 2026 will take place in November, returns with a special spring edition, featuring the live premiere of the new album Nocturnal Consolations by the Slovenian–Polish duo of multi-instrumentalist Iztok Koren and renowned guitarist Raphael Roginski, two distinguished representatives of the global neofolk movement. Joining them for this special evening is cult ambient and experimental electronic music artist Abul Mogard with his latest project, Quiet Pieces.


Raphael Roginski & Iztok Koren (PL, SI)
The first shared sounds and the idea for further collaboration between Iztok Koren and Raphael Roginski emerged when Raphael was working with the band Širom, of which Koren is a member, on a project arranging compositions by the American composer and eccentric Moondog. After several years of waiting and working on other projects, the two musicians finally embarked on their joint project last spring. Koren and Roginski are instrumentalists who seek the ancient voice of their instruments while simultaneously exploring the sound of tomorrow. With a sensitive attention to discovering space for sound, both acoustically and ideologically, they have created a polyphony of constantly shifting sound colours in their collaboration. Polyphony itself, both as an idea of encounter and shared construction, is the common denominator of their work. As enthusiasts of traditional music, they draw inspiration from it, yet their aim is to create music for contemporary audiences and a universal sonic foundation. The result is the album Nocturnal Consolations, which features their first eleven original compositions.

Abul Mogard (IT)
Abul Mogard is the alter ego of Italian musician Guido Zen, known for his evocative albums and immersive live performances. Based in Rome, he has appeared at prestigious festivals and venues, including Berlin Atonal, Poesia en Voz Alta (Mexico City), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Condeduque (Madrid), Auditorium San Fedele (Milan), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht), and the Southbank Centre (London). Commissioned by the Organ Reframed festival, Mogard composed a piece for pipe organ, electronics, and trombones, performed at Union Chapel (London) with the London Contemporary Orchestra. His work also extends to film, including soundtracks for British artist Duncan Whitley’s Kimberlin and Phoenix City (2021), the latter commissioned by the Coventry Biennial. The BBC has featured his music multiple times, with Mary Anne Hobbs praising his remixes for Carl Craig and Fovea Hex (feat. Brian Eno), listing them among her favourite tracks. Thom Yorke has also featured Mogard’s music in various mixes for NTS Radio and the BBC. Mogard’s music has found its place across a variety of creative fields, from film and television to fashion, contemporary art and advertisements. His work has been featured in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel trailer, Shane Meadows’ TV series The Gallows Pole, runway shows for Ferragamo, and campaigns for Lancôme, among other projects. Recent releases include Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close with Rafael Anton Irisarri and In uno spazio immenso with Grand River, alongside collaborations with artists such as KMRU, Colin Potter, CoH, and Cindytalk. Abul Mogard’s new album, Quiet Pieces, was released on his newly established imprint Soft Echoes in 2025.

Iztok Koren (SI)
Iztok Koren, born in the Prekmurje village of Beltinci, is a social worker by profession and a Slovenian multi-instrumentalist, who currently lives in Ljubljana. He began his musical career in 2000 with the dynamic, playful, and melancholic post-rock band ŠKM banda, continued with the loud, expressive and chaotic post-industrial noisecore duo Hexenbrutal, gained wider recognition with the imaginary and dreamy freak folk trio Širom, and, in addition to other occasional musical projects, created an intimate, minimalist, Zen solo project under his own name during the lockdown. In 2024, he founded the international trio Na tej strani nebes with fellow members from Belgium, and in 2025 a duo with Polish guitarist Raphael Roginski. Iztok also composes music for theatre, dance performances and films. He has collaborated several times with theatre director Mirjana Medojevič and dance choreographer Matjaž Farič, creating music for the silent film Sultanka ljubezni  and for the films Gora se ne premakne  and Moje poletne počitnice, directed by Petra Seliškar. As a solo performer, he explores the musical meanders of so-called freak folk music and compositions that involve playing multiple instruments simultaneously. Iztok plays the banjo, gembri, balafon, kalimba, percussion, drums, steel drum, guitar, synthesizer and morin khuur.

SOCIALS: https://www.instagram.com/koren.iztok/ 
MUSIC: https://iztokkoren.bandcamp.com/music 
VIDEOS: 
iztok koren - YouTube
Iztok Koren // KRAK

Raphael Roginski (PL)
Raphael Roginski is a guitarist, composer, improviser, cultural animator, and researcher of musical folklore. He trained in both jazz and classical traditions, later expanding his studies to include musicology and ethnomusicology. By combining different traditions, he seeks musical and performative systems that are independent of dominant popular culture. Raphael performs music from Turkish, Bedouin, African, Kurdish, Greek, Georgian, Persian, Armenian, and many other traditions, often collaborating directly with musicians who have roots in these cultures. His fascination with Kurpie folklore led to a collaboration with Genowefa Lenarczyk, a renowned folk singer and daughter of Stanisław Brzozowy. Together with the last Polish Roma musicians, he founded the group Drom. His interest in early music led to the Bach Bleach project (Bach's works on prepared guitars) and the album Plays Henry Purcell, which reinterprets Purcell through the prism of the cold wave aesthetics of the 1980s. His in-depth research into guitar techniques, classic blues musicians, and the sound of instruments from the 1950s and 1960s is reflected in projects such as Wovoka and Shy Albatross.

SOCIALS: 
https://www.instagram.com/raphael_roginski  
https://www.facebook.com/raphaelroginskimusician 
MUSIC: https://raphaelroginski.bandcamp.com 
VIDEOS: 
Raphael Rogiński – tema - YouTube
Raphael Rogiński live at The state51 Factory 

VIDEO ROGINSKI & KOREN:     
Raphael Rogiński & Iztok Koren | Wschód Kultury – Inne Brzmienia 2025

Abul Mogard (IT)
Abul Mogard is the alter ego of Italian musician Guido Zen, known for his evocative albums and immersive live performances. Based in Rome, he has appeared at prestigious festivals and venues, including Berlin Atonal, Poesia en Voz Alta (Mexico City), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Condeduque (Madrid), Auditorium San Fedele (Milan), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht), and the Southbank Centre (London). Commissioned by the Organ Reframed festival, Mogard composed a piece for pipe organ, electronics, and trombones, performed at Union Chapel (London) with the London Contemporary Orchestra. His work also extends to film, including soundtracks for British artist Duncan Whitley’s Kimberlin and Phoenix City (2021), the latter commissioned by the Coventry Biennial. The BBC has featured his music multiple times, with Mary Anne Hobbs praising his remixes for Carl Craig and Fovea Hex (feat. Brian Eno), listing them among her favourite tracks. Thom Yorke has also featured Mogard’s music in various mixes for NTS Radio and the BBC. Mogard’s music has found its place across a variety of creative fields, from film and television to fashion, contemporary art and advertisements. His work has been featured in Ridley Scott’sThe Last Duel trailer, Shane Meadows’ TV series Gallows pole, runway shows for Ferragamo, and campaigns for Lancôme, among other projects. Recent releases include Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close with Rafael Anton Irisarri and In uno spazio immenso with Grand River, alongside collaborations with artists such as KMRU, Colin Potter, CoH, and Cindytalk. Abul Mogard’s latest album, Quiet Pieces, was released on his newly established imprint Soft Echoes in May 2025.

SOCIALS: https://www.instagram.com/abulmogard 
MUSIC: https://abulmogard.bandcamp.com  
VIDEOS: Abul Mogard - YouTube