Goran Bregovic
Icon of Balkan music
Located in the heart of Europe, Sarajevo has been part of many empires: Byzantine, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian… In the 16th Century, the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain joined Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims and all rubbed shoulders in this small «Jerusalem of the Balkans».
It is the history of Sarajevo with its multiple beliefs, identity, mixtures and complex paradoxes that inspired Goran Bregović’s new album “Three Letters from Sarajevo”.
For this new recording Goran Bregović unites, on the allegorical level, the three religions, using the violin as a metaphoric instrument. Oriental, klezmer and classical styles coexist in three instrumental pieces performed by unique soloists from Israel, the Balkans and Maghreb.
For this new recording Goran Bregović unites, on the allegorical level, the three religions, using the violin as a metaphoric instrument. Oriental, klezmer and classical styles coexist in three instrumental pieces performed by unique soloists from Israel, the Balkans and Maghreb.
Recorded with his traditional Wedding and Funeral Orchestra, the album comprises also amazing and detonating vocal tracks by Bebe, Riff Cohen, Rachid Taha, Asaf Avidan, Sifet and Mehmed, performed in Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, English and Serbo-Croatian.
Very few musicians have managed to develop an art of such amplitude that coherently mixes such a great variety of styles and techniques without losing its identity. A Bregović piece can be recognized on the very first hearing and seems to address the entire Earth with no distinction of race, sex, age or religion.