Markelian Kapedani - Balkan Piano

Pianist and composer Markelian Kapedani is one of the most emblematic exponents of the Albanian social and cultural renewal in the years following the fall of the Berlin wall. One of the basic aspects of his playing and writing is the extraordinary ability to create a wonderful fusion between jazz and the formal traditions of Western Classic Music, and the folk music of the Balkans .

Presented here are fourteen solo piano performances made up of Kapedani original compositions and arrangements of traditional Balken folk tunes.

Incredible! How is it possible that, from one of the most closed and impenetrable nations in Europe, comes one of the most open, universal, and musically transversal works that I have ever heard? - Giuseppe Trotto, ReMusic