Catalogue: Gypsy and Balkan: "Radio Pascani" - Fanfare Ciocarlia

Have horns, will travel! The explosive debut album on PIRANHA from the fastest, zaniest, most endearing brass band in the Balkans. Blowing in from the little village of Ciocarlia in eastern Rumania. The scratches! The bumps! The bruises! The scars! Oh, what an honourable patina the instruments of this masterful Romany Brass Band have acquired over the years. Says bandleader Ioan Ivancea proudly: We are one of the last ensembles of our kind where we come from and we are the fastest of them all! Which he means quite seriously, and understandably so: what are they all about, those wild local parties at which the Fanfare Ciocârlia play? Answer: good outrageous fun for days and days and all the exuberance in the world. Mr. Ivancea and his band of all ages (22 to 68 years old) mix up all the required Romanian, Turkish, Macedonian, Serbian and Oriental dances from Sorba, the Hora and the Brou to shreds of the current international radio hits. And when the necessary melancholic moment comes with only two or three players whispering their deep blues they do that in the most skillful way too. "Fanfare will accompany you from the cradle to the grave" runs the local motto - and they always play the right tune!