In the summer of 2020, Nejc Poljanec brought together his brother Luka Poljanec and his friends Tomaž Zevnik, Benjamin Barbarič and Gal Golob to form the quintet Gugutke, which would focus on performing traditional Slovenian music, traditional music from the Balkan Peninsula and traditional music from Turkey. The band wishes to spread the sound of heritage and tradition, which is going extinct in the modern world, in the same way as a bird species, the Turkish dove (»Gugutke« in the Serbo-Croatian, archaic Slovenian language), which habitates on the Balkan Peninsula, is going extinct. The band's leading motive is in this way (this can at times be heard in the improvisational parts) strongly connected to birds, as brothers Nejc and Luka are also passionate ornithologists.
Each member of the group brings his own distinct style and experience to the group sound - Nejc is a classicaly trained accordion player and composer; Tomaž has long been active in several classical, ethno, jazz and experimental projects; Luka is a succesfull classical percusionist, performing regularly with orchestras and smaller ensembles; Benjamin after exceeding at classical guitar has turned to playing the 12-string guitar, cumbus and even the violin; and Gal is a part of several international jazz bands, mostly based in Berlin. Despite their wide range of influences and expertise they stay true to the original source of the music - the folklore. Their performances do not feature jazzy solos or fusion-like mixing with other genres, but rather a return to a sort of natural sound of folkloric music.
Gugutke let the stories and melodies of simpler times convince you of their own beauty. Since their beginning, the group has grown exponentialy, playing festivals and stages within and outside of Slovenia such as Crossroads Music Ostrava, Ascoli Piceno Festival, Druga Godba, MENT, Fooating Castle, Sumo, Slovenska Zemlja v pesmi in besedi, Cankarjev Dom, Gala Hala, Drakon...