Rock band Balkandji was formed in 1999 by Kiril Yanev on guitar and Nikolay Barovsky on keyboards. At that time they were playing together with Alexander Stoyanov in the brass band of the First English Language School, Sofia. They used to play a lot of folk pieces with the brass band, which gave Barovsky the idea to try to introduce some folklore motives in their music. After a lot of experimentation, a distinctive style emerged from the band which mixed folk music, rock and other musical styles.