Balkandji is a folk metal band from Bulgaria. They freely mix traditional Bulgarian music with hard rock and heavy metal. As Bulgarian folk music is very complex, in Balkandji songs odd time signatures and constant time signature changing are very common. They create a characteristic blend of melodies taken from the Bulgarian folklore with heavy guitar riffs. The lyrical themes are also borrowed from the Bulgarian folklore. Their lyrics are mainly about love, the loved one, magic and the love of the native land. All of the songs draw a beautiful lyrical picture that can be very touching. They are mainly written in Bulgarian. It's impossible to represent the spirit of the songs in a foreign language. They use the poetics and the vocal melodies and harmonies that are typical for the traditional music. Archaic words that are now rarely used are not uncommon. Besides guitars, keyboards and drums Balkandji use traditional Bulgarian instruments, such as tambura, kaval and tǔpan. The name The general meaning of the word Balkandji (spelled Балканджи in Bulgarian) is “a man of the Balkans”. As the Stara Planina mountain range used to be called “The Balkan” in Bulgaria, it also means “a man from the mountains”, mainly referring to the revolutionaries and people who were hiding in Stara Planina while Bulgaria was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, hence a brave and patriotic young man. Biography Rock band Balkandji was formed in 1999 by Kiril Yanev on guitar and Nikolay Barovsky on keyboards. At that time they were playing together with Alexander Stoyanov in the brass band of the First English Language School, Sofia. They used to play a lot of folk pieces with the brass band, which gave Barovsky the idea to try to introduce some folklore motives in their music. After a lot of experimentation, a distinctive style emerged from the band which mixed folk music, rock and other musical styles. Balkandji's first song was called "Az tebe, libe, sum zaljubil". It was written to lyrics by the poet Konstantin Nikolov, who invited Balkandji to write the music for his poetry. They entered Horizont – Spring 2000, a national radio contest, with this song. Meanwhile, they also wrote the music to "Vyatura" (The Wind) and "Stariya prizrak" (The Old Ghost) with which Yanev's 9-year-old sister participated in the Parad na detskata pesen children's song contest. The songs won first and second place.