HORIZON

Julian Nedkov was born on 29 June 1972 in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria. His first encounter with the magic, called Rock-n-Roll, was when he was only six years old. His father gave him an audio cassette with recordings of not just anybody but the king of rock himself – Elvis Presley. This music completely changed his views on the world. For Julian it became an embodiment of freedom and the desire to dream. Under the conditions of communism, i.e. “prohibitions”, “this was a gasp of air”, Julian often says. As a teenager, he listened to tons of music, the most outstanding and with expressed personality were Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and AC/DC. Julian was deeply impressed with the percussionists John Henry Bonham from Led Zeppelin and Philip Rudd from АС/DC. As early as grade 6, the thoughts of forming a rock band were already in place. A little later, he would form the group Baby Face (Clan) with his classmate Ivailo Stoyadinov. Supported by his parents, Julian attended his first music lessons and spent endless hours playing the drums. He started with a set of Amati drums – small and strange instruments compared with the DW Collectors – Blue Diamond he now has. Concerts, recordings, participations in TV and radio broadcasts and lots of press articles followed. After experiencing a spiritual cataclysm, Julian turned to God and became a follower of Christian moral values. He believes in every word of God set out in the Bible. Julian participates in the recordings of gospel albums and in their musicals. Later he was to be invited to play for Extremum and the American band Voice of Glass with whom he participated mainly in festivals and also played in clubs in the USA and Europe. Julian recorded at the legendary “Ardent Studio” in Memphis, Tennessee. This was another dream come true as the group of his favourite drummer John Bonham from Led Zeppelin mixed its third album in this studio along with many other world famous players such as R.E.M, Bob Dylan, Isaac Hayes, Stevie Ray Vaughan and White Stripes. For a Bulgarian from the then-poor Sofia Banishora district, Julian would often make fun of himself that this was quite an “achievement”. After he returned from the US, he received a phone call from an old “combat” friend of his – Valery Slavchev from the group Horizon. Julian was invited to join Horizon. He gladly accepted and they immediately started working. They started writing texts of songs, composed chords and melodies and joined efforts for new projects. The Horizon music machine is on its way again. In his free time, Julian Nedkov continues to listen to tons of music and, as he says, to “learn only from the best examples”.