About

The compositions of Ivo Paunov are like oases where emotions find home. They provoke the ear and give rise to a strong desire to lose yourself in them.

From the performance of
Nosferatu, eine Improvisation des Grauens,
11 06 2021 in Oude Kerk Rotterdam Charlois

Composer, music producer, sound designer, saxophone and flute player. His early works include music and sound design for theatre and band music. After receiving his formal training in jazz performance at York University he started teaching music to youth, and organizing and participating in recitals and workshops in Toronto.

Early 2000 at the Hooch, Toronto with Corneliu Esanu, Vihren Paounov, Jacek Karlowski

In the meantime, he performed with his band Afrodisiac in Toronto and Montreal and wrote scores for a number of plays and films.

He established the Sofia/Rotterdam-based band Acid Folk Five. In the following years he continued playing with the Five, recording for the Bulgarian National Radio and Television while touring in Europe.

AFF in Studio 1, BNR
Georgi Petrov on the left

Meanwhile, he composed award-winning music for ensembles film music and computer games and performed with the National Philharmonic Choir “Svetoslav Obretenov”.

Three Pennies Opera ensemble, Bulgaria Hall

While studying jazz and electronic composition in Rotterdam, he focused on linear and algorithmic composition using music programming languages.

Recording “Where the Sun Rises” with BNR Big band and Lili Ilieva, 2018

He wrote a number of small ensemble pieces. His latest works include the music for the award-winning film “Touch Me Not” (Golden Bear, Berlinale 2018). Recently he recorded two big band pieces with the Bulgarian National Radio Jazz Orchestra and composed and recorded two acapella pieces with “The Great Voices of Bulgaria”.

Recording with the Great Voices of Bulgaria and Illia Mihaylov, for the album Spectrum, 2018

Jivko Vasilev and Margarita Ilieva recording Kaval Piano duo for the album Spectrum

He wrote the arrangements for the documentary “Walking on Water” (2019) about Christo’s installation of Floating Piers, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. In 2022 he wrote the original music for the award-winning film “January”.

After completing his Master’s Degree in Audio Engineering at the Sofia University, he composed the music for the audio-visual production “Five Elements” which premiered at the Bulgaria Hall in 2021.