BARCELONA GIPSY BALKAN ORCHESTRA [Julien Chanal]

Barcelona Balkan Gipsy Orchestra again arrives in Zagreb Močvara, 25/02/2017. All who were in the past, sold-out show, know what to expect. We had a little chat with guitarist Julien Chanal ...

For the second time in two years in Zagreb, Croatia, same spot, club Mocvara. How does it feel to be in Croatia again?
It feels like too long, we re really looking forward to come back! Last year, we had a great response to our show, and a great audience. How to describe your music? It's pretty much mix of everything...
It's our music, the result of the getting together of 7 musicians from different culture, and different musical background. It goes around balkan, jewish and gipsy music mostly but without restrictions.

The group changed its name from last Zagreb´s gig. Then your were called Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra, now Barcelona Gipsy Balkan Orchestra. Why the change of the name?
After the separation with the clarinett player Robindro Nikolic, one of the founder of the band, we felt the need to change a bit the name of the band, just to mark the before and the after. This doesn t mean we stopped playing klezmer music, as we were already playing balkan music before.

Last year you´ve released two albums, soundtrack and a full album. What can you tell me about making soundtrack music?
It was a first experience for this band, and a really nice a productive one. It meant composing all together and fast cause we had a strict deadline to respect. Everybody brought their ideas and shared them, it really brought us all together, and we re looking for more work in that direction.

'Del Ebro al Danubio' is the first full album under a new name. How do U compare it with older work, especially with first album 'Imbarca'?
Imbarca was our first album when we ve just met. In " Del ebro al danubio" we know each other better, we invited the friends that participated in the history of the band, and put the songs we were actually already playing on tour. "Imbarca" was before travelling and the first tours, "Del ebro al danubio" is after.

You've worked with some interesting names from Slovenia and Macedonia, Vlado Kreslin and Ferus Mustafov. How was that? Do you have in your plans other colaborations, maybe with someone from Croatia?
From each collaboration we learn a lot, as musician and as people. We also learn new songs, new interpretations, it s really enriching. Unfortunately it s not always easy to organise as every musicians have their own timetable, but we re definitely looking forward for more, even if there is no concrete plan as today. And yes, probably with some musicians from croatia as your share of great owns!



Live performance is something which is your tour de force. You like touring?
We love touring, and it s one of our favourite part of our job. First you take time to create a repertoire and then you make it travel, confront it to different audiences everyday and see the response, bring it back and then all over again.

Where was your show with the wildest crowd?
Our game is to make the crowd wild, it worked pretty good last time in Zagreb, so we re looking forward to do it again.

What can we expect in Zagreb?
A new show and a wild crowd to go with it.

jura // 21/02/2017