"Eastern Europe. The Block. Where dissident rockers overthrew the system, elected poets to government, and vanished into freedom… A bloody revolution. Balkanization… Eastern Europe. A thin man, furrow-browed, in white suit, girates about with saxophone, ghost with a rhythmic tic… Thin Man smiles, accosts the fiddler, hangs greasy burek [Balkan fried bread] for all to behold. Accordion soars, clarinet reeds out melodic tango, rhumba, samba. Thin Man bellows into radio mic: "Budapest, Novi Sad, Beograd, Istanbul," beckoning journey on the Orient Express: ball in Vienna via Yugoslavia's exiles depressed at Oktoberfest, over Novi Sad's underwater bridges precision-bombed by NATO, through Belgrade's dictatorship, and onto Istanbul. Welcome to the last night on Earth. You are dancing seductively on an apocalyptic border with Boris Kovac and LaDaABa Orchest. It's music that captures the complicated paradox of polarizations; dancing gleefully with God in a suitcase, standing in a crack among multiple precipices, it's a joyously tearful cacophony headed for the End, no fixed address, yet anchored to a multiethnic region of Serbia perched between historic worlds. It's The Last Balkan Tango, conceived during the NATO bombing, completed in Milosevic's dying days, and Serbia's first ever release on a major world music label (Piranha, 2001)… Boris Kova's drive for a universally accessible new ritual, a third way that allows the individual not to take sides. Kovac clearly throws categorization wide open. A sax player with an experimental background, he doesn't necessarily consider himself world music fare, which might be why The Last Balkan Tango is one of the most captivating world music releases of late. "I do not belong to that genre any more than to another. I do not represent Balkan culture at all. I represent just myself using my life experience related to Balkan political destiny." On what attracted him to Kovac Piranha Records director Borkowsky Akbar says, "We didn't release the album because it is from Serbia, but because we love the music and we were looking for an additional artist to add to our Gipsy & Balkans focus. Boris is perfect because he is a great visionary, composer, musician and producer…"

Heather Hermant, Global Rhythm Magazine


01. Last Balkan Tango
02. Begin-Ing
03. Octoberburrekfest
04. Balkatino
05. Slow For Julia
06. Begin For Julia
07. Rumbatto
08. Last Waltz In Budapest
09. What Life Offers
10. Tango Apocalypso
11. Shadows Of Reminiscence
12. Ending
13. Orient Express

Bogdan "Bogi" Ranković (clarinet, bass clarinet)
Goran "Gogi" Penić (accordion)
Milo Miki Matić (double bass)
Boris "Boki" Kovaĉ (alto & soprano sax)
Istvan ĆikPiću (drums, percussion)
Olah "Vici" Vince (acoustic guitars, titles 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13),
with special guest:
Nenad Vrbaŝki (violin, titles 1, 3, 4, 8, 10)

Link

pass: bluesmen-worldmusic.blogspot.com

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