Balkantron

Many casual listeners today tend to think any music from Eastern Europe is Balkan – which sees even Gogol Bordello occasionally mislabelled as a Balkan Gypsy band. Sarakina are from Poland, yet on Balkantron they play Balkan music, which is likely to only add to the confusion. Polish folk music has often relied on klezmer, which once flourished in Poland's now destroyed Jewish communities and village folk traditions, yet nothing has made the same kind of impact that the music from the Balkans has, further south east. Sarakina are a technically gifted quintet – bolstered here by guest musician Peyo Peev on gadulka (bowed lute) and are led by accordion and bagpipes player Jacek Grekow. They have released six albums previously and whether or not Balkantron is Sarakina's one-off tribute to the Balkan region is unclear. I imagine so, as the band's sound is, overall, far closer to contemporary classical in the phrasing of instruments, with the Balkan influence seemingly being only an added spice; they cover three Bulgarian songs here but none of the tunes sound very Bulgarian in this setting. This is a well played and produced album but, with so much great Balkan music to choose from out there, I can't imagine returning to it very often.