Catalogue: Gypsy and Balkan: "Mhm A-ha Oh Yeah Da-Da" - Darko Rundek
released: 2006
Description
In Darko Rundek's poetry the global and the personal, cadence and cacophony entangle:
Adventurer and cosmopolite, Darko Rundek was drawn from his hometown Zagreb in Croatia to Paris during the civil war, where he gathered a new family around him with the Cargo Orkestar: Isabel, the French violinist with her wide experience of many musical worlds, who has worked with theatre director Peter Brook and Nina Simone; the electronic musician Vedran Peternel, with whom Darko Rundek broadcast radio transmissions to the main land from a cargo ship in the Adriatic Sea during the dark years of civil war; video artist Biljana Tutorov, whose projections accompany the Cargo Orkestar's concert performances; multi-instrumentalists Dani Pervan and Dusan Vrani; the trumpeter Igor Pavlica, Darko Rundek's old colleague from the "Haustor" days, plus Emmanuel Ferraz the French/Portuguese trombonist and the French double-bass player Bruno Arnal.
On this original PIRANHA recording, their songs tell of the loneliness of the exile and the placelessness of the Internet, the reality of modern metropolis and the utopia of a love that transcends all borders.
Calabash Music, Nov. 2006
"The latest album has a strange title (Mhm A-Ha), but all of Rundek's fabulous distinctiveness. Plaintive Balkan sounds and sweet melodies are mixed with funky punky American rock and African folk influences."
Charlie Fidelman, The Gazette
"It's intelligent, witty, dark and engaging. For something outside your safe sphere of music, go where Darko Rundek can be found."
The Fly
"It's all cool and callous, wonderfully played and very original. Includes an interesting short video of one song."
CD Roots online
"Writer, singer, theatre director and sometime Yugoslavian rock star, Darko Rundek is a sort of Croatian Tom Waits or David Byrne. His quirky attitude is reminiscent of both artists, and he manages to sound like each of them, too. But then there are many voices and styles to Rundek - Kurt Weill-style cabaret, Balkan village sounds and an operatic crooning that feels oddly Soviet are whipped up with African, rock and reggae influences into something highly affecting, but utterly unclassifiable. Based in Paris, Rundek is a sort of poet of displacement, whose music relates as much to cyber-culture and mass migration as it does to the village values which have shaped our view of Eastern European music. If his eclecticism can make Rundek initially difficult, there's a unifying vision and a strength to his melodies that make him well worth taking time over."
Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph
"Rundek makes angular melodies sound as sweet as lullabies. And vice versa. In these bland times he's a necessary character to have around."
John L Walters, The Guardian
Adventurer and cosmopolite, Darko Rundek was drawn from his hometown Zagreb in Croatia to Paris during the civil war, where he gathered a new family around him with the Cargo Orkestar: Isabel, the French violinist with her wide experience of many musical worlds, who has worked with theatre director Peter Brook and Nina Simone; the electronic musician Vedran Peternel, with whom Darko Rundek broadcast radio transmissions to the main land from a cargo ship in the Adriatic Sea during the dark years of civil war; video artist Biljana Tutorov, whose projections accompany the Cargo Orkestar's concert performances; multi-instrumentalists Dani Pervan and Dusan Vrani; the trumpeter Igor Pavlica, Darko Rundek's old colleague from the "Haustor" days, plus Emmanuel Ferraz the French/Portuguese trombonist and the French double-bass player Bruno Arnal.
On this original PIRANHA recording, their songs tell of the loneliness of the exile and the placelessness of the Internet, the reality of modern metropolis and the utopia of a love that transcends all borders.
Press Quotes
"'Mhm A-ha Oh Yeah Da-Da' is one of the hottest releases in 2006"Calabash Music, Nov. 2006
"The latest album has a strange title (Mhm A-Ha), but all of Rundek's fabulous distinctiveness. Plaintive Balkan sounds and sweet melodies are mixed with funky punky American rock and African folk influences."
Charlie Fidelman, The Gazette
"It's intelligent, witty, dark and engaging. For something outside your safe sphere of music, go where Darko Rundek can be found."
The Fly
"It's all cool and callous, wonderfully played and very original. Includes an interesting short video of one song."
CD Roots online
"Writer, singer, theatre director and sometime Yugoslavian rock star, Darko Rundek is a sort of Croatian Tom Waits or David Byrne. His quirky attitude is reminiscent of both artists, and he manages to sound like each of them, too. But then there are many voices and styles to Rundek - Kurt Weill-style cabaret, Balkan village sounds and an operatic crooning that feels oddly Soviet are whipped up with African, rock and reggae influences into something highly affecting, but utterly unclassifiable. Based in Paris, Rundek is a sort of poet of displacement, whose music relates as much to cyber-culture and mass migration as it does to the village values which have shaped our view of Eastern European music. If his eclecticism can make Rundek initially difficult, there's a unifying vision and a strength to his melodies that make him well worth taking time over."
Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph
"Rundek makes angular melodies sound as sweet as lullabies. And vice versa. In these bland times he's a necessary character to have around."
John L Walters, The Guardian
Track List
| Track | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | U-Bahn |
| 2 | Slick Senorita |
| 3 | 12 Ptica |
| 4 | Sensimilija (Jeff the Grateful) |
| 5 | Zvuk oluje |
| 6 | Kolo |
| 7 | Highlander |
| 8 | Wanadoo |
| 9 | Ne okreci se |
| 10 | Helga |
| 11 | Put u Sumrak |
| 12 | Mhm A-ha Oh Yeah Da-Da |
| 13 | Svitanje |
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