Bantering with Berat Bua
Berat Gashi, AKA Strella, is a radio DJ, LP collector and owns one of Prishtina's coolest speakeasies Tillt. He has lived in Marseille, Paris and London but remains one of Prishtina's own icons.
Prishtina always had two faces. Or more. One Prishtina is full of restaurants and cafés where internationals, politicos and the new kids on the block bump into each other sipping macchiatos, another Prishtina has one big park and one main boulevard where people would stroll, chatting animatedly while eating pumpkin seeds or grilled chestnuts, but there’s also another Prishtina...
The one lurking in the darkness, with hidden small contemporary art galleries, house parties for invited guests only, restaurants where philosophers, beatniks and an odd diplomat who’s gone native, drink raki while eating pickled mezze, grilled goats or rabbit ragù - and one or two (or three) bars that work until early hours of the morning, where you find eclectic mixture of ravers, roamers and researchers of risqué.
This is the Prishtina in which Berat Gashi, AKA Strella is a prince. Or a pacha. Strella is one of the folks that transform Prishtina from a meager municipality to a moving metropolis (at least for a night). He is known through his work in the iconic Urban FM in the post-war years. He later moved to Marseille and Paris, where he worked in Radio Nova, founded by Jean-François Bizot, the famous publisher and novelist and the guy who “joined the dots between the poetry of Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Verlaine, and the music of Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart or Soft Machine”
Strella also lived in London, working in different alternative radio stations and then brought this wealth of counter-culture references to the city craving fresh perspectives, unorthodox creativity spiced up with hedonistic hidden hopes. He founded the TILLT radio station and TILLT LP bar, a gem for vinyl or vodka lovers, (and hiding lovers) that is both a last-chance saloon and a first-step sanctuary for urbanites.
So here’s TenTen with Strella, not the most verbose man, but one with vivid answers and an (un)expected passion for medieval knights and mercenaries.
You own a bar, and you have LPs. If you could create a signature cocktail inspired by one of your favorite LPs, what would it be called, and what ingredients would you use?
Some sort of mixture appropriate for Prishtina. Maybe calling it High&Dry after Radiohead, with vodka, whiskey and coffee.
What's the most unexpected or bizarre request you've ever received from a customer at your bar?
I get too many weird requests, as I can imagine lot of bar owners do. Someone recently approached me with a “hey, I have a playlist, can you record it for me in a vinyl?”
If your bar had a band, which genre would they play, and which three musicians (living or dead) would be in the lineup?
My bar’s house band would only play synth pop, with Dave Gahan, Serge Gainbourg and David Bowie.
Why is your bar called TILT?
Can I answer with a photo? Here’s an image:
In your opinion, what LP’s captures the essence of a perfect night out at a bar?
A lot :)
You lived in France. If you could host a night at your bar based only on French music, what would you play?
Beaucoup de musique française éclectique avec beaucoup de synthé et de hip-hop. With a lot of Les Rita Mitsouko, Serge Gainbourg, and just a lot of French hip hop.
What’s your perfect music combination for late night, and what’s best for Sunday brunch?
In both cases just New Soul Funk. Works for day or night, brunch or beers.
You exhibit great contemporary art in your bar. What's one art piece in your bar that you liked most?
Call me subjective, but I think TILLT THE END OF TIME by Driton Selmani is an awesome piece of art. Because we are tillt the end of time.
If you could have any historical figure as a guest at your bar for an evening, who would it be, what music would you play, and what drink would you serve them?
Tough question, but then again not so tough. My guest would be Merkur Bua, an Albanian condottiero – a Stratioti captain active across European courts and battlefields in the early 16th century. As a mercenary capitaine de cent hommes de guerre de cheval albanoys, he wore a plis and he participated in all the important battles of Italian Wars serving the Republic of Venice, the Duke of Milan, the King of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I.
We would listen to Faith No More and would drink absynthe.
10. Radio is making a return, so video didn't kill the radio star. What's your perfect content in radio?
Music. Music. And Music. What else would one listen in radio?
