Gosti — Philip Griffin

Tunji BEIER (percussion) • Philip Griffin (Strings) • Linsey Pollak (winds)

Listen to Gosti's "A path to travel” album

When they first got together in this format, the members of Gosti called themselves the Beier•Griffin•Pollak Trio, comprising, as they do, Tunji Beier (pronounced TOON-JEE BUYER), Philip Griffin and Linsey Pollak. They perform in two configurations, which they enigmatically refer to as sit-down Gosti and stand-up Gosti, so-named because they in fact either sit down or… you guessed it, stand up to perform.

Stand-up Gosti, where the jokes are few and far between but the goat-skin bagpipe (gaida) reigns supreme, plays the traditional folk music of Macedonia, once known as The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but now officially The Republic of North Macedonia. However delighted they are to play this traditional music when the opportunity arises, the trio mostly performs in its sit-down configuration where it plays original music, largely composed by Linsey Pollak. These pieces are strongly influenced by Macedonian traditional music with a focus on rhythmic variation and non-Western modes. However all the pieces allow much space for improvisation, and the real strength of this trio lies with the journeys that these pieces are taken by way of the improvisations and solos of all three players.

After playing (in the stand-up version) at WOMADelaide in 2023, where they called themselves Gosti (to differentiate from the sit-down version which they were calling B•G•P Trio), the band enjoyed having a name that people could potentially pronounce, quite likely spell, and possibly even remember, so permanently changed their name. Gosti means “guest” in Macedonian, and refers to the fact that they, and we all, are guests on this planet. Also we are guests on this unceded Aboriginal land, and in particular, the three musicians, through their musical studies, have been guests within different cultures, that have enriched them and their understanding of the music that inspires them.

Gosti have, in various formats, been playing together for several decades. Some of their previous groups are Ross Daly’s Australian Labyrinth, Dva, dididumdum, Makedonski Bop and The Balkanics.

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Tunji Beier at the age of ten was studying Yoruba drumming in Nigeria. Six years later he travelled to Bangalore in South India to study percussion for three years at the Karnakata College of Percussion under the mentorship of Mr TAS Mani. This intense period of study enables Tunji to bring his mastery of the mridangam, kanjira, ghattam and morsing to the instrumentation of Gosti.

Philip Griffin skills and interests in music performance span instrumental and vocal forms from Medieval music to World Music/Jazz to Germanic opera and many more besides. In his own words, “Since the 1980s I have been playing music in a wide variety of styles, photographing all kinds of things (but particularly birds, frogs and reptiles), making videos, teaching, music directing choirs and theatrical productions, and quite a few other activities besides”. In this trio he mainly plays oud, laouto, electric bass and rabab.

Linsey Pollak discovered a bamboo grove when he was 19 and has been making and designing wind instruments ever since. While making instruments in London in the 1970s, he travelled to Macedonia to study the gaida (Macedonian bagpipes) for eight months; an experience that changed his life. Since then he has created dozens of varied music projects and toured his solo shows all over the world. In this trio he plays his self-made instruments - cylisax, hybrid duduk, clarinis, gaidanet, Crow and Donna.

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The music played by Gosti is mostly original compositions by Linsey. However, each of the three players brings a diverse array of sounds, skills, styles, and emotional content to the music that develops and extends each of the compositions. The real strength of the trio lies with the journeys that these pieces are taken by way of the improvisations and solos of all three players and also by the ease with which they all play and improvise together. The sound of Gosti is fresh, but listeners can also hear the maturity and depth that long-term musical partnerships can bestow.