kalatva. » balkan

Beirut

karuna — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 06:20:46 +0000

Beirut is a band led by Zach Condon, a very talented young fellow who plays the ukelele. Beirut’s melodies are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. It’s been very difficult to decide on a song to sample here, because there are so many amazing choices. Elephant Gun is a beautifully melodic and melancholy tune. It starts with a solo ukulele tune, and then launches into the vocals and an accordion accompaniment, which is later joined by some brass. Enjoy!

Elephant Gun
elephant gun

The music video for this song is on YouTube. It’s a fairly imaginative and peculiar video, with interesting characters and costumes, so you can check that out as well here:

Jazz Manouche

karuna — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:43:39 +0000

I found a fantastic two-disc album of Django Reinhardt covers by some of his greatest successors. It’s called Jazz Manouche, and it features such artists as Bireli Lagrene, John Jorgensen, The Rosenberg Trio, and many more. Bireli Lagrene happens to be one of my favourites, so here’s his cover of one of Django’s great songs.

Blues Clair
Blues Clair

Dikanda

karuna — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:11:02 +0000

Dikanda is a Polish folk band. They are inspired by traditional Eastern European folk songs, but unlike many old folk bands, they have a really full band of instruments (accordion, violin, guitar, bass, drums, and vocals) which makes the arrangements really amazing. These are two of my favourite songs of theirs:

Hosadyna
08-hosadyna.mp3

Ketrin Ketrin
10-ketrin-ketrin.mp3