To celebrate their 25th anniversary, acclaimed Rom band Taraf de Haïdouks are revisiting some of the old styles which have enchanted Western audiences on their earlier albums: Gypsy love songs, poignant Romanian ballads and old-school dance tunes, alongside those Turkish-flavoured instrumentals they’ve grown to love. Let’s all join the party!

For the first time since the sad demise of their oldest vocalists (Ion Manole, Neculae Neacsu, Cacurica and Ilie Iorga), Taraf de Haïdouks are revisiting some of their ancient styles, and are taking a retrospective look at their career. Some of their former collaborators have been re-enlisted, such as superb vocalists Tsagoi (the son of the legendary, late Neacsu) and Gheorghe Manole (who has mastered the repertoire of his father, the great Ion Manole), as well as the flamboyant Viorica Rudareasa, the woman who sang the band’s iconic song “Dumbala Dumba”.

Thus does the Taraf de Haïdouks’ music keep morphing: far from being a fixed, monolithic canon, it has been absorbing and recycling old & new elements. The band was formed back in 1990, by individual musicians who, until then, had only been playing in various combinations at the village’s social rituals (baptisms, weddings, funerals, harvests etc). By then, ‘foreign’ accordions had already found a place amidst the violins and cymbalums, and the repertoire of the lautari (traditional Rom musicians) was peppered with cabaret flavours from the city. Then came Turkish melodies and rhythms and, more recently, the influence of popular urban manele (which actually derives from manea, an old ‘oriental’ lautar style). The harmonies and structures became more complex, the playing more virtuosic, and the balance between vocal and instrumental pieces gradually shifted in favour of the latter.

In this anniversary album, Taraf de Haïdouks have weaved it all back together into a rich tapestry of styles, which pays tribute to their parents’ generation.


TARAF DE HAÏDOUKS ARE:

Gheorghe Falcaru: flute
Anghel Gheorghe “Caliu”: violin
Robert Gheorghe: violin
Constantin Lautaru “Costica”: violin, voice (lead vocals on 3 & 10)
Marin Manole “Marius”: accordion
Marin P. Manole: accordion, voice (lead vocals on 5 & 7)
Filip Simeonov: clarinet
Paul Giuclea “Pasalan”: violin, voice
Ion Tanase “Ionica”: cymbalum


MINI-BIOG

Described by a UK daily newspaper as “The best Gypsy band in the world”, Taraf de Haïdouks are considered as the epitome of Gypsy music’s fabulous vitality ever since the release of their debut album and their first visit to western Europe back in 1990. They’ve relentlessly toured all around the globe, have released acclaimed albums, and their countless fans include people like the late Yehudi Menuhin, Kronos Quartet (with whom they’ve recorded and performed), actor Johnny Depp (alongside whom they appeared in the film “The Man Who Cried”), fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto (who invited them to be models-cum-musicians for his Paris and Tokyo shows) choreographer Pina Bausch, Stephan Eicher and many more. Their music was used in numerous films, such as Terry Gilliam’s “The Brothers Grimm” and “Train of Life” by Radu Mihaileanu. Meanwhile, the band members seem to have been relatively unaffected by all this attention, they’ve retained their sense of humour, and their way of life (they still reside in their modest village of Clejani, in the Wallachian countryside).