Asenovgrad, Bulgaria

Smallman is an alternative/ambient/metal band strongly impacted by the Balkans folklore. The band was found in 2001 by four enthusiastic guys, who were looking for to express their alternative impressions on music. The core of the band lays in implementing the mysticism of the Bulgarian bagpipe into aggressive, slow and deep-sounding guitar and bass lines. In the beginning, smallman’s early creations were makerd by the aggressive energy of the youth. After the first three years, a different path started defining the band's orientation - maturity in musical sense was the more and more arising idea for the band. That is when the ideas came into existence. The first track was recorded in early 2006 in "Studio42" in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Six months later, marked by the great support from Lachezar Georgiev (sound engineer and owner of the studio), the band had a decent first long-play record. The cover design, combined with a small book from the vocalist, Cvetan, made shape of the first album, called "smallman". It was not before two years after this first album, when the band started to gain popularity amongst the Bulgarian underground scene. During the spring of 2008, smallman, organised their first bulgarian tour, which triggered popularity in Bulgaria. Later this year, the band was invited to play in the biggest festival in Bulgaria (Spirit of Burgas). After this festival, a growing interest in the band and it's first album was initiated by the rock and art media in Bulgaria. Reviews in magazines and interviews for rock radiostations were the first activities outside the stage In the end of 2008, smallman started creating new songs for the next album. One year was needed for it to be created and recorded. Its name is "Labyrinth Of Present". Again, Lachezar Georgiev helped with the recordings, and again, the design of the cover was created by smallman themselves. This time, the album took the shape of a book, with the CD inside and cards next to it. Each card is philosophically connected to a song. The album is self released in March 2010 and marked a great success on local, Bulgarian level. In 2010 and 2011 the band appeared in a several indoor events and outdoor festivals in Bulgaria and Romania (again including Spirit Of Burgas and Best` Fest - Bucharest).

"Smallman" - 2006/ "Labyrinth Of Present" - 2010

2001

Cvetan Hadzhiyski - vocals, bagpipes/ Ivan Todorov - guitars/ Stefan Penev - bass/ Andon Trapkov - drums

Alternative, Ambiental, Metal