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e-mail: ognjensavija@gmail.com
Ognjen Šavija is a guitarist, musician (multi-instrumentalist), composer, producer, sound designer, multimedia artist, as Visionarium Beyond, a digital artist and NFT creator, and more - explorer of Infinity and its possibilities. He was born in 1971 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is member of Cultural Association Ambrosia. He began his musical journey by taking classical guitar lessons from Mile Praljak and experimenting with electronics and audio engineering.
In 1986, together with his brother Nebojša Šavija-Valha, he formed a duo that focused on contemporary music, new age, experimental, avant-garde jazz, and ambient genres (See Ognjen Šavija and Nebojša Šavija-Valha duo). He also played with several alternative rock bands. During this period, he honed his skills as a composer, producer, and sound designer, and created a series of compositions for the guitar, such as "Invisible Fields" and "Bells of Tundra." In 2020, "Bells of Tundra" was nominated for an award in the category of best acoustic single on One World Music Radio.
In 1991, he became the leader of the goth rock band the Invisible Fields and collaborated with his brother on an audio-visual project called "Twilight Whisper" in 1994. They also composed and recorded music for a feature film called "Mladi muzi poznavaji svet " directed by Radim Spaček in production of the Czech Television. In 1994, he was a founding member of the Cultural Association Ambrosia, which became a major platform for his artistic output for many years. He participated in over 100 different art projects done by the association, including the most significant from that period like "7X7," "Cabaret," "Balance," and "The Bleeding floor" art performance, "Samoglasnici" and "Snjeguljica i 7 malih performancea" theater plays, and the quadraphonic sound installation "Ambrosia Zone." At that time, the Ambrosia music projects AAM and Techno Experimental Sound System were created, the releases of which were published by the Ambrosia Musica label. He also played with acid jazz band Fabrizio Und His Friends (later renamed as "Kaiten") and opened the 1st Sarajevo Jazz Fest.
In the mid-2000s, he was mostly involved in electronic music and was a member of projects Echogenik and Akreditacija & MC Dijamant. Towards the end of the 2000s, he shifted his focus to electroacoustics and sound exploring, leading to the creation of the ensemble Liminalit in 2009. Their recorded album in 2009 "Boundary Conditions" was released only 9 years later, and they have performed at several big festivals like Exit 2010 (Novi Sad) and Solstice 2011 (Ruigoord - Amsterdam), characterized by their experimental approach and genre crossing, with an additional dimension that includes the visualization of music. Within Liminalit, two sub-projects have emerged: Liminalit Exploring, which explores the possibilities of sound, composition, form, and visuals, and Liminalit Classic, which is a crossover of world fusion, jazz, and classical music.
At the same time, Ambrosia's work then reaches its full maturity and that's when artistic performances are created: "Pasvni pušači (Second Hand Smokers)", "Halali", "Boje", "LAB 7", "Vremenski procijep" (with Romana Lindem) and the music-poetry recital "Fact OFF". He also collaborates with numerous artists on their art projects.
In recent years, he has expanded his artistic horizons, branching out into video, animation and digital art.
One of his most ambitious projects to date is his multimedia solo project "A Time of Change", which he is launching in his mountain studio in 2020. This project includes a musical video album that will showcase his complete author's work, including composition, music, video, recordings, animation, production, and more. The inspiration for the project came from his observations of nature and climate changes, and the resulting album is a beautiful and powerful expression of his art.
In February 2022, "A Time of Change" premiered, followed by a hip-hop/dub remix and video clip for the track "Civilization of the Enchanted Masses", as well as a video clip for his old techno track "Psychedelic Forest I."