User:LypoSomatiq/Niowt

Niowt is an alternative rock band from Ljubljana, Slovenia, presently consisting of the founding members: Mojca Krevel (vocals, guitar) and Peter Šenk (synthesizers and keyboards). The duo is currently collaborating with Slovenian multi-instrumentalist and producer Peter Penko (, April Nine).

History
The story of Niowt goes back to 1992, when Mojca Krevel and Peter Šenk were invited to prepare a music score for a student theatre project by the now-renowned Slovene director Sebastijan Horvat. The collaboration continued as the two founded a band. In 1994, when the first gigs took place, the band adopted the name Niowt (a variant of the now more common “niwt”, i.e., the supposed pronunciation of the hieroglyph for ‘city’ ).

Over the next two years the band played numerous gigs all over Slovenia and recorded a few songs (produced by Janez Križaj), finding airplay on Slovene alternative radio stations. In 1996, after a visible performance a the Novi rock festival in Ljubljana, the band was contacted by the musician and emerging producer Peter Penko, who offered to record and produce their material. The resulting 13 songs were released on their debut album Niowt, issued in 1997 by the German label Chrom Records. The album received unanimous critical acclaim from critics around Europe,   who described the band as an indie version of Garbage and declared them the Siouxsie and the Banshees of the 1990s. Remixes of the songs from the album have been included on various compilations.

In 2004, Mojca and Peter decided to take a break from music to focus on their academic careers, and the band activities were put on hold. In the following years, Mojca occasionally collaborated with various Slovenian musicians (Xenia Ius, Warrego Valles, Werefox). In 2016, Mojca and Peter reunited and started working on new songs. In 2020 they reconnected with Peter Penko and started recording new material. In 2022 Niowt released their first single and video in 20 years: “Lamenting Venus,” which was followed by “Bedtime Stories” in 2023.

The band spent the next two years touring Europe and preparing material for the next album.

In 1999, they were back in the studio with Peter Penko, recording songs for the second album which, titled Loverboy, was released on Chrom Records in 2001. Loverboy, too, received rave reviews by critics all over Europe, but this time also in Slovenia, and the band were invited to play a number of major festivals (i.e., Wave Gothic Treffen in Germany, Beach Bum in Italy, Rock for People in Czech Republic, concluding with a concert in Cankar Centre in Ljubljana ). In 2000 they opened for the Finnish band HIM in Tivoli Hall, which was Ljubljana’s largest concert venue at the time. Their songs were included in various compilations. In 2003, after extensive touring, the band started preparing material for their third album. In the same year, they recorded 80 minutes of original music for the theatre play Play It Again, Caligula (directed by Matjaž Pograjc), which received the award for the best music score at the second Slovenian Festival of Chamber Theatre in Ptuj.

In 2004, Mojca and Peter decided to take a break from music to focus on their academic careers, and the band activities were put on hold. In the following years, Mojca occasionally collaborated with various Slovenian musicians (Xenia Ius, Warrego Valles, Werefox). In 2016, Mojca and Peter reunited and started working on new songs. In 2020 they reconnected with Peter Penko and started recording new material. In 2022 Niowt released their first single and video in 20 years: “Lamenting Venus” and announced a new release at the end of 2023.

Studio albums

 * Niowt (1997)
 * Loverboy (2001)

Previous members

 * Bojan Brajkovič
 * Luka Jamnik
 * Jernej Jurc
 * Tibor Mihelič
 * Robert Oven
 * Luka Šalehar
 * Matej Puklavec
 * Boštjan Vajs