I spent a few days in Romania about 10 years ago visiting a friend in Bucharest (see photo above), then driving across Transylvania (not stopping on account of the vampires...) to Cluj-Napoca and onwards to Hungary. It's a beautiful country from what I have seen and there is plenty of good music to discover.
Historically Romania is divided into 9 historical regions, of which we will explore a few starting in the east with West Moldova. First stop there is the village of Zece Prăjini, home to gypsy brass band Fanfare Ciocărlia. Sons of farmers this 12-piece (24-legged) brass band has single-handedly revived Balkan brass sounds in Romania and the wider region with their frenzied rhythms and infectious party sound. What a great first encounter with the sounds of Romania! Their song Asfalt Tango was their first international hit and features on their 2009 Best of album and also on this set for the NPR Tiny Desk series:
Fiddler Aurel Mandache was born in 1933 in the village of Răcăciuni and died in 2013 while hunting for mushrooms (not sure if he ate the wrong ones, fell off a cliff or died of unrelated causes). He played his fiddle at weddings and events of the local Moldovan population as well as for Hungarian and Gypsy minorities. Here's a tune from his 2003 album Fiddle Dance Music from Moldva, which is no longer available, called Serény Magyaros:
Next we are entering the region of Transylvania, home to Count Dracula or Vlad the Impaler, although I'm reliably informed that most vampires have now migrated to become politicians around the world... As we mop the sweat off our brows from dancing along to Fanfare Ciocărlia, here comes something altogether calmer from singer/songwriter Lizabett Russo, who is originally from Braşov, but is now based in Scotland. She combines gentle folk songs from her native country with contemporary jazz and avant-garde sounds. She sings in both English and Romanian accompanied by gentle instrumentation. Here is a short piece from her 2019 album While I Sit and Watch This Tree, Vol.1 called Valuri si Ganduri (Waves and Thoughts):
Next we are heading to the city of Târgu Mureș where singer/songwriter and actress Ada Milea was born in 1975. Much of her work has been written and performed for theatre productions and her performances certainly have a theatre vibe, albeit of the absurd and comical variety. In fact I recommend that you just type in her name on YouTube and there's a wealth of really funny stuff, even if you don't understand any Romanian. She plays an acoustic guitar, but is often accompanied by her 'band' that play toy instruments, fridge doors and anything else that comes to hand, while looking dead serious. It's difficult to describe, so here are a couple of examples:
Accordionist and Roma manele singer Nicolae Guţă was born in Aninoasa in 1967. Manele is a genre of folk-pop music from Romania. His first mainstream hit was a song called De când te iubesc pe tine (Since I've been loving you), and features on the 2008 The Rough Guide to the Music of Romanian Gypsies:
It is well known that Transylvania has a sizeable Hungarian minority, but what is less known is that historically there was also a large Armenian minority in the region working mostly as traders and entrepreneurs. The latter group largely disappeared by the 20th century or got assimilated into the Hungarian population, but some of their culture has been kept alive. I don't know much about Alex Száva, except that he is of Transylvanian-Armenian heritage and has released an album in 2007 entitled Armenian Folk Songs from Transylvania. On it he plays various instruments himself, such as the accordion, mandolin, udon and flute. Here's a song from the album called The World's Deceitfulness:
That's it for today from Romania, we'll continue our virtual journey next time. In the meantime, as usual, you can track my trip on my Tripline map
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