Kocani Orkestar - The Ravished Bride

The Balkan brass band, Ko�ani Orkestar, has been championed by everyone from jazzman Paolo Fres� to Balkan Beat Box, Cibelle and indie rockers like Zach Condon/Beirut, who described them as my favourite Balkan band.

This studio recording captures the power and excitement of the band's explosive live performances with masterful arrangements that are more inventive than ever. Many of the tracks are romantic or love songs, carried by the thrilling voice of the charismatic young singer Ajnur Azizov. There's also an unexpected foray into the Latin world, with a rendition of Mexican standard 'La Llorona', and a nod to the band's roots with a couple of traditional Macedonian pieces.

Some of the instrumental pieces feature surf music guitar stylings from guest guitarist Uri Kinrot (Balkan Beat Box and Boom Pam). Together with the addition of a drummer, this gives the album a rock undertone, which perfectly complements classic Ko�ani elements such as driving horn section arrangements and wailing, lyrical taksims (instrumental solos), courtesy of sax player Durak Demirov, trumpeters Turan Gaberov & Shukri Kadriev, and Djeladin Demirov on clarinet.

Kocani Orkestar has had tracks remixed by prominent artists in the fields of world music, electronic and rock music (from Se�or Coconut, Animal Collective, Lightning Head and Susheela Raman to Mercan Dede, Smadj and Buscemi), all of which helped them gain a wider audience, as did the inclusion of one of their tracks in the soundtrack to the movie Borat.