Balkan Bump

Balkan Bump is the global electronic music project orchestrated by trumpet player, producer and ethnomusicologist Will Magid.

Balkan Bump’s music fuses heavy electronic production with global music influences including traditional 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 live performance’s popularity has brought the project to global renown with performances at the world’s biggest music stages including Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lightning In A Bottle, as well as beloved jazz, blues and world music festivals including Harvest Music Festival and CA WorldFest, and numerous appearances at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Balkan Bump debuted with the single “Aymo” alongside famed Slovenian producer Gramatik and American hip hop royalty Talib Kweli. Gramatik quickly championed the new project, unveiling Balkan Bump's live show on his Re:Coil Tour and releasing Balkan Bump’s debut EP on his Lowtemp label imprint. Since then the Balkan Bump project has gone on to collaborate with global and live music projects Beats Antique and Moon Hooch; international electronic music superstars CloZee, Fakear, & Manic Focus; and American hip hop icon The Gift Of Gab (Blackalicious). Balkan Bump has been featured in Billboard Magazine, NPR’s The World, The San Francisco Chronicle and Magnetic Magazine. In 2020 Magid curated a series of global music mixes for Los Angeles-based Dublab Radio under the Balkan Bump alias.

As a solo artist, Will Magid has collaborated and performed with artists including Bonobo, Erykah Badu, Pretty Lights, and soul music legend 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. His music has been featured in campaigns for global brands including Warner Brothers, Uber, Porsche, HP, Vogue, GoPro and Ubisoft. Magid graduated from The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music with a degree in Ethnomusicology.