Kardeş

The movement in Bosnian music known as new sevdah, a recasting of a traditional urban song style with Slav, Turkish and Jewish roots known as sevdalinka, has become known beyond its borders via such performers as Amira Medunjanin and Mostar Sevdah Reunion, as well as Halka and the more experimental Damir Imamović. Less familiar, though hopefully for not much longer, Sarajevo's Divanhana cling the closest to the recension that became popular over the radio waves after World War II. Their clarinet, guitar, accordion, bass and percussion are played with contemporary fluency, mixing nostalgia and innovation. Here they have invited Suzan Kardeş from Bosnia's former imperial conqueror, Turkey, to perform her traditional songs alongside Naida Čatić's Bosnian repertoire, setting them in a harmonic language stemming from another one-time imperial governor, Austria-Hungary, spiced up on occasion by Macedonian brass and slap guitar.

Unsurprisingly, the most convincing fruit of this relationship comes with their joint performance of ‘Üsküdar'a Gider İken Anadolka’, a song whose chequered history is shared by the Indian Jewish community and Boney M's ‘Rasputin’. Slightly jazzy versions of the veteran favourite ‘Kafu Mi Draga Ispeci’ and the classic ‘Snijeg Pade na Behar na Voce’ sit happily here with their Turkish relatives.