BALKAN TAKSIM
A PSYCHEDELIC FUSION OF TRIP-HOP ELECTRONICS AND EASTERN EUROPEAN FOLK TRADITIONS
Balkan Taksim is the corduroy-clad brainchild of Bucharest-based multi-instrumentalist/artist Sașa-Liviu Stoianovici who, along with his electronic music aficionado and producer Alin Zăbrăuțeanu, is on a quest to educate and entertain audiences around the globe about Balkan psych. Sașa's exploration of traditional Balkan music, ancient Romanian music and Slavic cultures led him to travel the region and record traditional tunes with local singers and musicians, which he later reworked with contemporary electronica, heavy bass and powerful beats.
Acide Balkanique.
Acide balkanique is the second album by the Romanian band Balkan Taksim. Constantly questioning their obsession with the Balkans, this almost mythical place, a region that faced a lot of pain, but also gave so much beauty to the world, the band continues a musical journey that covers both real and imaginary areas.
There are eight tracks on this album - some of them are purely instrumental and others are sung in Romanian and in Serbo-Croatian. The two traditional folk songs that are played here come from northeastern Romania (Norocul) and from Turkey, as filtered through the Ex-Yu space, namely Bosnia (Mastika).
True to their musical roots and personal experiences, the band uses several traditional string instruments: the classical Ottoman tanbur
meets the Romanian folk lute - the cobza - and in between one may listen to the voices of two members of the tamburitza family, the prim and the dangubica/samica. As usual, most of these sounds are, at times, filtered and distorted. Also, as a sound signature, Balkan Taksim brings again
into mix the acid textures of the distorted Turkish elektro-saz, one of their favourites. There are also bass guitar lines, analogue and digital synthesizers, theremin, various ethnic audio samples.
Other sound elements, such as glitches, cracks, noises, bring a certain post-industrial flavour to the overall mix. All these technical means are employed here in order to create a space that is rough and real, but also dream-like. On this album, the listener can find both imaginary and genuine elements of Balkan and Carpathian folk culture, intertwined with Ottoman-like tanbur melodies, as well as with quotes from the western urban popular music of the last decades.
Acide balkanique is the result of a hypnotic meeting between several geographical and cultural spaces: shaped by the contemporary electronic sounds, the voices of Carpathian peasant musicians meet the Balkan
troubadours’ rhythmical tunes, in a true search of unity. An invitation to dance, an invitation to meditate.
Disko Telegraf.
The pilgrims are back. Balkan Taksim’s debut album hits the radio waves in the same mythical vein the band embraced on the singles (Zalina, Anadolka, Lunca, Zali Zare & Shlonak) that predicted the arrival of this whimsical Eastern European treat, showcasing a sanguine vignette of multicultural sensibilities.
The 13 tracks don’t necessarily point to a clash of cultures, but more of an off-kilter, flavorful exploration as Sașa-Liviu Stoianovici sings in Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Serbian South Slavic Torlakian and Aromanian Gramustean dialects. Not only that, but the duo also tinkers with traditional instruments such as the Romanian cobza, the Turkish elektro-saz and the Bosnian šargija. They enlisted French producer and mastering engineer, Alex Gopher, famous for his work with Air, Etiene de Crecy and Clara Luciani.
The LP follows Alin Zăbrăuțeanu’s neon colored synths building in intensity until they meet Stoianovici’s plucked strings that often hit through twangy reverb and raunchy hits of melodica, underscoring very intimate and angular vocals, at times squeezing a groove even out of the most stripped back, washed out numbers.
Seeing how social division is still one of the open wounds of the world, the beauty of Disko Telegraf lies in the group’s ability to architect a pulsating universe where each sound and influence gets to shine, finding a common language and transcending cultural barriers.
The ”journey” metaphor might seem a bit on the nose here, but there’s nothing better that can capture the arresting ambience of their music, part psychedelic trance, part being lost in a museum – nevertheless, all jubilant reasons that lull you into contemplating their labyrinthine soundscape.