Complementing the screening of Balkan's Digest (directed by Ionuţ Piţurescu), an original and intense fusion concert „opens” the musical aspect of Diversity Day at TIFF: Sunday, June 5, at 7.30 p.m., on the TIFF Meeting Point stage (the National Art Museum courtyard), the bands Biokolective Swing (Romania) and Balkan Morgana (R.Macedonia, Serbia) promise a memorable movement and sound show. If the Romanians from Biokolective Swing distinguish themselves through an archaic repertoire, based on music made on instruments extremely rare nowadays, the musicians from Balkan Morgana have sound typical to South-Eastern space, reclaiming Aromanian songs performances with virtuosity accents on Arab lute, clarinet, ney and percussions. The access to the concert held by the two Balkan bands is free.
The first weekend of the tenth edition of TIFF culminates with an exceptional concert: Sunday, June 5, 11 p.m., at Euphoria Music Hall, within the Diversity Day: the renowned Turkish band Baba Zula will give a concert in Cluj-Napoca, alongside one of the most well-known Transylvanian bands - Nightlosers.
Baba Zula shows, held on hundreds of stages around the world, offer a complete audio-visual experience, with performances held in extravagant outfits accompanied by belly dancing, theatre, poetry and live VJ-ing. Their Dub Oriental sound is the result of a mixture of traditional instruments with electro and reggae music. Despite its completely exotic appearance, Baba Zula music has its roots both in oriental traditions, and in the meaning and sonority of '60s rock'n'roll. Due to their extremely well defined style, they were included in Fatih Akin's documentary Crossing the Bridge (2005), an X-ray of the most important Turkish contemporary music trends.
The Transylvanian blues band Nightlosers combines the themes and sounds of Transylvanian traditional music with the American ones. Three studio albums, but also hundreds of concerts in Romania and abroad, have established them as one of the most original Romanian bands of the last two decades, whose media include the violin, electric guitar, drums, but also the harmonica or the washboard.
