Composer-saxophonist Boris Kovac hails from Vojvodina, a region in the former Yugoslavia where cultures met and civilizations blended. World After History is rooted in the sound of roving Balkan café musicians but mingled with touches from around the Mediterranean, including sunny echoes of Spain and Italy and sad reflections of places to the east. The music merges hope with melancholy, folk traditions with orchestration, nostalgia with optimism. Tuneful and rhythmic and led by his own fluid playing, Kovac’s music is both grounded and path finding – a testament to the resiliency or culture and spirit in a region trying to repair itself after a decade of horror.

-David Luhrssen