After their successful concert in May 2007 at the Barbican Centre, Taraf de Haidouks is back in the UK, this time with four concerts which include pieces from their brand-new album, "Maskarada".
To complete the bill, they have invited Forty Thieves Orkestar to tour with them. They open the evening in London with their delicious blend of Eastern and Balkan melodies, served piping hot over dub, breaks and hip-hop beats. Thief-in-chief Aiden Love and his club cohorts promise a night of club sounds bittersweet melodies and solid percussive grooves.
Apart from relentlessly touring around the globe, the group has engaged in a series of interesting collaborations: recordings and concert performances with Kronos Quartet, participation as models-cum-musicians in fashion designer Yohji Yamamotos Paris and Tokyo shows, onscreen appearance alongside Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci in Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried (for the soundtrack of which they recorded five pieces) etc.
Meanwhile, the band members seem to have been relatively unaffected by all humdrum, they've retained their sense of humour and their way of life (they still reside in their modest village of Clejani, in the Valachian countryside).
Taraf de Haidouks received the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in 2002.
For me this is probably the best music in the world. Faster then Slayer more intricate then the John Steinbeck. Steeped in hundreds of years of history and then play few old versions of more modern songs and performed by a motley crew of about 10 with the youngest in their 20's and one or two that must be 80 or 90. David Harrison, Music Towers, June 2007
When: 26-29 November 2007
Where: London (26 Nov, Queen Elizabeth Hall), Manchester (27 Nov, Bridgewater Hall), Birmingham (28 Nov, Town Hall) and Basingstoke (29 Nov, Anvil)
