Disko Telegraf

Balkan Taksim are the latest act to push the Balkan sound into fresh and exciting Turkish territory, reminding one of the 500-year Ottoman heritage in the Balkans. The sound is a seductive, multi-textual mix of gnarly, fuzzed-out psychedelic electric saz licks à la Baba Zula and distorted electronica recalling Massive Attack, Pink Floyd and Kraut rockers Can. It is the work of two very distinct Romanian musicians, Alin Zăbrăuteanu, an electronica producer from Vrancea county, and Saşa-Liviu Stoianovici, a visual artist and collector of folk instruments from Romania's Banat region. Stoianovici seems to be the conceptual force. The tracks in a large part arise out of his extensive field work in Serbia, Romania and Turkey, in particular a formative trip to Konya to pay homage at the shrine of Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi where Stoianovici procured his first electric bağlama. One of the best tracks is ‘Anadolka’, a ruminative number that weds weird electronica and heavy bass with brittle, atmospheric saz lines and Bosnian lyrics rendered in a muted, incantatory and ritualistic vocal style. These songs inspired by travels in the Balkans and Turkey in turn spark a feeling of wanderlust for said Balkan byways.