Balkan Bump is the global electronic music project orchestrated by trumpet player, producer and ethnomusicologist Will Magid.
Balkan Bump fuses electronic production with global music influences including Balkan brass melodies, Middle Eastern sounds and American hip hop. The Balkan Bump live show highlights Magid’s expertise as an orchestrator, ranging in size from a solo performer to a 12-piece band featuring a menagerie of global instruments including sitar, saz, oud, clarinet and trumpet. The project has performed at Coachella, Bonnaroo and Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Balkan Bump debuted with the single Aymo alongside Slovenian producer Gramatik and American hip hop royalty Talib Kweli. Gramatik championed the project, releasing Balkan Bump’s debut EP on his Lowtemp label. Since then Balkan Bump has collaborated with live musicians Beats Antique and Moon Hooch; electronic music superstars CloZee, Fakear, & Manic Focus; and American hip hop icon Gift Of Gab (Blackalicious). Balkan Bump has been featured in Billboard, NPR and The San Francisco Chronicle.
As a solo artist Will Magid has collaborated and performed with Bonobo, Erykah Badu, Pretty Lights, and Solomon Burke. He has led numerous jazz and global music outfits including his eponymous soul-funk band’s seminal Alligator Spacewalk album in 2016, and the 2017 neoclassical exploration Lunar Conquest Suite / Resistance Rising. Magid graduated from The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music with a degree in Ethnomusicology.