Geni Skendo Duo

Skendo wanted an escape and he had two: music and weightlifting. For him, music was an act of rebellion, a mode of transcendence, a portal to other realities. Or as he puts it, “I got high on music.”

Skendo grew up studying both Western classical and traditional Albanian music. He absorbed the latter’s polyphony, Middle Eastern tinges, and wild dance rhythms. But he always had a thirst for new sounds. Through films and radio broadcasts, Skendo felt like he could visit other cultures through sound. He soaked in tunes from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, America, and beyond. They would beam from the radio to his ears, on through his fingers, and into the rooms he longed to transform and eventually escape. Songs were bottled messages, unearthed time capsules, stowaway music boxes, and transcendental oracles.

Skendo plays Persian nay, Japanese shakuhachi, Irish flute, penny whistle, and his custom-made, signature fluorescent orange contrabass…