Three Letters from Sarajevo

In a career spanning more than three decades, Goran Bregović has gone from Yugoslavian rock star to populariser of brassy Balkan Gypsy music via his acclaimed soundtracks for Emir Kusturica's films and collaborations with everyone from Iggy Pop to the Gipsy Kings. Three Letters from Sarajevo is arguably his most ambitious and expansive project yet. His regular Gypsy band, the Wedding and Funeral Orchestra, is joined by a full classical symphony orchestra on three heavyweight instrumental tracks that are the pillars around which the album is constructed. Titled ‘Christian Letter’, ‘Muslim Letter’ and ‘Jewish Letter’, each features a solo violinist representing Eastern, Western classical and klezmer traditions in a celebration of the pre-Balkan war history of Bregović's Sarajevo birthplace as a (mostly) harmonious meeting place for Christians, Muslims and Jews.

In between the three serious-minded orchestral compositions, his regular band let rip on a set of wildly inebriated Gypsy party songs, sung explosively by guest vocalists who include the Spanish singer Bebe, the spirited Israeli folk-rocker Asaf Avidan, and Rachid Taha, who is in gloriously demented form on a brace of orgiastic brassy knees-ups.