Contemporary Balkan and Klezmer, part 1 of 2
We will listen to fairly recent Balkan and Klezmer music tonight.Shantel is the German/Romanian producer Stefan Hantel, who had his first hit ‘Mahalageasca’ in the Netherlands in 2008.Together with band Bucovina Club Orkestar Shantel brings the Balkan sound in a Western twist.CD. Shantel – Viva Diaspora (2015), label: Essay Recordings.
The Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra (BGKO) is a fusion of eight musicians and eight nationalities. The shared passion for experimenting with traditional Gipsy- and Klezmer repertoire has brought them together.The BGKO is a real live band, even their album Imbarca was partly recorded live.
CD. BGKO – Imbarca (2014), label: Sattelite K.
Darko Rundek has been active for many years as a rock singer, writer and actor in Croatia. He has always made music with bands with at least six musicians, but in recent years he has been seeking more intimacy with the acoustic trio Rundek Cargo. This trio released the album Mostovi last summer.
CD. Rundek Cargo Trio – Mostovi, (2015), label: Menart – 385601095032.
The label Sound Brush Records released the album Raizes (Roots) by Nicole Borger last summer. Singer Nicole Borger and her producer, Frank London, carefully chose the repertoire and arrangements. They transform traditional and contemporary Jewish songs as Yidl Mitn Fidl, Abi Gezunt, Bulbes or S’Iz Nito Kein Nekhtn into Brazilian bossa nova, baiãos and frevos.
CD. Nicole Borger – Raizes (2015), Label: Soundbrush Records SR1033.
The Balkan Clarinet Summit, are a sextet clarinet players from six different countries: Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Italy, Germany and Greece.They combine great virtuosity with great fun and play everything, from jazz and folk to classical, from hushed and melancholic to joyful and exuberant.Their CD Many Languages One Soul contains 14 pieces that were recorded live during concerts in different cities.CD. Balkan Clarinet Summit – Many Languages, One Soul (2015), Piranha label.
In early October, the album Aheym was released, a special collaboration between the New Yorker Lorin Sklamberg and the British couple Merlin and Polina Shepherd. The album ‘Aheym, homeward’ offers original songs in Yiddish and Russian, instrumental compositions and traditional material.Sklamberg & The Shepherds take us on a musical journey that entertains, is filled with both joy and deep emotion, and pushes us further into the revival of Yiddish songs.CD. Sklamberg & the Shepherds – Aheym – Homeward (2015). 
The group Litvakus released the album RAYS in 2014. The music of Jewish Belarus, reveals the unknown side of the Jewish and Klezmer music and another, Litvish, Yiddish. It tells a story about the country where the Jews and the Litwins (pre-colonial Belarusians) lived together.Litvakus album RAYSN presents seldom heard music from two critically endangered cultures, Yiddish / Litvak and Belarus.CD. Litvakus – Raysn, The Jewish Music of Belarus (2014).
