When the main stage falls silent on 15 October, the festival moves downstairs. At midnight on the Small Stage of the National Opera and Ballet, Pasquale Mirra and Hamid Drake play - a duo made purely of percussion that sounds like anything but. Tickets are 500 denars.

Hamid Drake has been one of the central names in improvised music for the last four decades and is counted among the most significant percussionists in free jazz, full stop. The Italian Pasquale Mirra plays vibraphone and percussion and has some thirty releases behind him, which makes him one of the busiest vibraphonists on the European scene. The two have played together since 2008, and their first studio album "Lhasa" came out recently.

What makes the duo interesting is that an entirely percussive line-up comes out melodic. The vibraphone carries the harmony; besides drums Drake plays frame drum and sings, so what looks on paper like an hour of rhythm works live as a conversation between two different kinds of struck instrument. The programme takes in their own compositions plus pieces by Don Cherry and Sun Ra - two writers whose music by definition is never played literally.

The slot is at midnight, which means the evening does not end with the main concert. The Small Stage holds considerably fewer people than the main hall, so anyone who wants to see this up close does not have much time to think it over. Tickets are 500 denars through mktickets.mk.