Top Eastern European Acts at the Lyric

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Two high energy groups performing this May

Mahala Rai Banda

Romanian gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks played a week of shows at the Lyric to packed houses; now here’s a chance to hear their urban counterparts. Created in the gypsy ghettos in Bucharest, Mahala Rai Band (literally Noble Band from the Ghetto) is an all-star group that combines the traditional gypsy sound of violin, accordion and cimbalom, underpinned with a very funky brass band. Described as one of the most high energy bands you will hear, their brand of gypsy music rushes headlong into a dizzyingly joyful world, fusing wedding fanfares, unruly military tunes, furious folk melodies, grinding belly-dancing rhythms and raucous, barely contained vocals. “This stuff seriously kicks!”, New York Daily News.

Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 May, 8pm

Darko Rundek’s Cargo Orkestar

Following two sold out shows for the recent London Jazz Festival, Croatian star Darko Rundek makes a triumphant return to London. Defying all musical categories, this artful maverick leads his exuberant Cargo Orkestar sometimes in Ramones-tempo Balkan folk-jazz-jams, at other times creating moody gypsy pop with Arabic melodies, taking listeners to a cabaret of broken promises and lost dreams. Darko’s shows have been likened to those by irony-drenched troubadours such as Tom Waits and Paulo Conte, his performances shining with “sparks of brilliance and timelessness”, Songlines.

Their new album Mhm A-ha Oh Yeah Da-Da (Piranha) will be released at the beginning of May.

Friday 12 & Saturday 13 May, 8pm

April 25, 2006