Shantel

(Website)

After pioneering the concept of Balkan clubbing with his now-legendary Bucovina Club parties and albums, after working his DJ voodoo around the world (and driving crowds to ecstatic bliss), after setting very high standards for dancefloor-oriented Gypsy music with his own seminal tracks and with his remixes of tracks by Mahala Rai Banda, Taraf de Haidouks & more… …Shantel has now moved on to the next step with the fab Disko Partizani! album, which lays the groundwork for a new brand of pop music. This is the sound of new Europe, centered in the middle of our old continent, but incorporating vibrant influences from the emerging new frontier which stretches all the way to Mitteleuropa, the South East, Greece, Turkey and beyond… Disko Partizani! sees Shantel successfully synthesizing his experiences as a producer, musician and DJ to create catchy, energetic and festive pop songs, full of hooks and surprises. The album features great performances by a host of musicians from southeast Europe and by Shantel himself, who also appears on lead vocals, gracing several tracks with an unexpected, elegant deadpan delivery. Essay Recordings (Shantel’s label) and Crammed have joined forces for this very special album, which will come out in early September 2007. Shantel will be extensively touring with the Disko Partizani project, accompanied by his Bucovina Club Orkestar, a full 8-piece band. Shantel, who started out as a respected electronica producer (with two albums out on Studio K7), has taken to the music of Eastern Europe following a trip to Bucovina, in search of his family roots. His Bucovina Club albums have earned him several awards (including a BBC World Music Award). Stop press: Shantel has written the original music for “The Edge Of Heaven”, the new Fatih Akin movie which just won an award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Albums

BUCOVINA CLUB

Label: Essay Recordings
Release date: August 10, 2005

Word got around about his Bucovina Club nights and the remix album of the same name Shantel issued on his Essay label. Then Crammed Discs employed him (and several other DJs) to remix their Taraf De Haidouks and Kocani Orkestar recordings as Electric Gypsyland. The resulting album was intermittently successful but it helped promote Shantel’s musical vision internationally. His 2005 Bucovina Club Volume 2 collection has proven a major European Where most techno and house was characterless and lacked any organic elements Shantel’s managed to mix Gypsy magic with a hi-tech pulse.

Shantel called his night Bucovina because his maternal ancestors have roots in the region, once part of the mighty Habsburg Empire but now partly in Romania and partly Ukraine. Bucovina Club Volume 2 features Balkan heavyweights Goran Bregovic and Fanfare Ciocarlia alongside a Gypsy take on North African anthem Ya Rayah and other material.

Shantel - BUCOVINA CLUB

BUCOVINA CLUB VOL. 2

Label: Essay Recordings
Release date: July 19, 2005

Shantel - BUCOVINA CLUB VOL. 2