Robert Bisha, originally from Shkodra in northern Albania, is a pianist, improviser and composer who plays an array of other instruments including accordion, çifteli (a stringed instrument found in Albania and some surrounding countries), frame drums and guitar. While much of his music is improvisatory, with avant-garde and jazz leanings, Robert is also heavily influenced by traditional Albanian and Balkan music. He has worked extensively, for example, on transcriptions of Balkan folk melodies, embracing the pentatonic scales and intervals found in southern Albanian music, and the influence of the Byzantine and Ottoman periods in the epic songs of northern Albania, rebetiko, çam, and arvanitas music.