Album Notes

We're a six-piece Seattle band playing party music from Southeastern Europe -- traditional songs plus a few originals in the same style. Our sound reminds some listeners of klezmer music with a double shot of Turkish coffee: intense, driving, heavily textured songs that make you want to get up and dance -- and our audiences always do! Balkanarama's lineup includes alto sax, clarinet, violin, keyboards, electric guitar, electric bass and drums. Four of us sing in half a dozen Balkan languages. We specialize in music of the Roma, or Gypsies, from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania and Serbia. We also play Balkan favorites from the '80s and '90s, including songs made popular by performers like Goran Bregovic and Slavi Trifonov. Our live performances feature wild, improvised instrumental solos in twisted rhythms like 7/8, 9/8 and 11/8, or the rhumba-like "cocek" beat that Rom stars have made popular worldwide. We perform regularly at clubs and other events around the Puget Sound and have released two independently produced recordings: "Nonstop," a full-length CD, in 2000, and "Black Sea," a five-song EP, in 2002. Judith Gennett, reviewing "Black Sea" for the Columbia Gypsy Music Archive, wrote: "Their first album, Nonstop, features some great pan-Balkan music, but this new EP shows changes towards louder and more electric arrangements without sounding like a pop band. The most electric track is 'Entropy Time," an original Balkan-style song with shattering guitar and soaring fiddle backing English vocals by the sweet voice of Jody Levinson."