Songs of the Roma is a journey through layers and roots in the pursuit of a revelatory vision. Simon Thacker draws on his immersion in the rich musical legacy of the Balkan and Romanian Romany, their origins on the Indian subcontinent and an audacious creativity. Their new album came out on December the 4th.

 

Songs of the Roma started as a touring trio, with Simon Thacker (classical guitar) expanding his Karmana duo with the much admired Polish cellist Justyna Jablonska with the leading Roma exponent singer/violinist Masha Natanson. Simon created a new Romani musical journey full of spiritual intensity, catharsis and joy of transformed traditional songs from Romania, the Balkans and Russia, and original instrumental music. While working on their debut album together, in the pursuit of yet more new portals to unexplored worlds, Simon also created music for the duo with cimbalom virtuoso Gyula "Julius" Csik and double bassist Gyula Lázár, both from Budapest, Hungary, and steeped in the Romany tradition. 

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In the vocal incarnation of Songs of the Roma, Thacker and Jablonska are first joined by Lublin based singer-violinist Masha Natanson, who ran away from home at the age of 15 to learn the genuine traditional music of the Carpathian and Romany communities. They reincarnate Ederlezi, reimagined by Thacker to reveal new layers of spiritual intensity and elegiac beauty, with Natanson’s stunningly poignant vocal performance allied to Jablonska’s expressive cello. Niška Banja opens with an anarchic dialogue of cello and guitar, and is full of fiendish humour and kaleidoscopic energy.  The trio whip up a storm of startling density in songs from beloved luminaries Esma Redžepova, the Macedonian “Queen of the Gypsies”, and Gabi Luncă, the Romanian-Romani lăutar. In their live shows, achingly beautiful Russian songs also feature.

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While, for Thacker, folk songs are a means to connect to the deepest past, his instrumental music is a vision of the most distant future. For the instrumental Songs of the Roma, he and Jablonska next join forces with cimbalom virtuoso Gyula "Julius" Csik and double bassist Gyula Lázár, both from Budapest, Hungary, and steeped in the Romany tradition. This unique sonic palette is a base for Thacker to expand on decades of inspiration from greats such as Taraf de Haïdouks, Sonia Timofeeva and Fanfare Ciocărlia, as well as his pioneering experiences writing for and performing with leading performers from across the Indian subcontinent and the Flamenco heartlands of Andalucia. The result is the cosmically shimmering Jolta and boldly effervescent Phirado.​

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Together with performers rooted in the tradition, who possess the character to come on this voyage to the distant shore of the unknown, and with the formidable gifts to tackle music that often butts up hard against the limits of human possibility, Thacker and Jablonska’s collective creativity across countries creates music of rare power and singular originality, paying homage to one of the world’s great music traditions: Songs of the Roma.