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Bratsch dip shamelessly into the musical traditions of the cultures they visit whether France, Germany, Eastern Europe or the Mediterranean, blending and molding the inspiration into their own unique sound, playing music that is imbued with the very real and raw emotion typical of Balkan music, a tradition that lives and breathes in their music.
The Bratsch adventure began 25 years ago, when Dan Gharibian met Bruno Girard and together they formed a band, playing every musical style from South American to Arabic. In the mid-seventies, the group concentrated on Central European music and discovered the Jewish American crooner and radio star Theodore Bikel, who sang in various Eastern European languages as well as in English, and who combined many different musical styles on his records. What made Bikel unique vas his method of always using musicians from the relevant ethnic region to play on his productions. This blend of cultures, in particular of musical cultures, is characteristic of Central Europe and especially for the part the Gypsies have played in this development.
The Gypsies have always dipped into the wealth of all the musical cultures they have encountered and integrated these influences within their own compositions. An attitude with which the band identifies. Bratsch will not tolerate any rigidity or dogma in their music. Even when their pieces are selected with exactitude, Bratsch are nevertheless free and flexible in their arrangements and performance of the works, moulding them into their own unique and inimitable style. Not least do the band's numerous original compositions illustrate where they have set their goals. Rather than producing faithful reproductions, they prefer to create pieces charged with the very real and raw emotion typical of Balkan music. |
