The Happy Wanderer

A few years ago I heard a mix CD from a friend who has a long history of listening to obscure and often inaccessible music. It was loosely termed ‘Balkan’ as many of the artists had been influenced by music and culture from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. At first it seemed like a joke, especially the Balkan version of the James Bond theme tune. After a while I got into this strange mixture of Euro-dance and Eastern European style folk. I became so taken by some of these musicians and the culture underpinning it all that I got a ticket to the nearest low cost airport Budapest – a mere 6 hour train journey from Belgrade. The lack of low cost tickets coming back meant that I had to travel from Trieste in the far North East of Italy – a mere 2 hours from Ljubliana in Slovenia. On this whirlwind tour I visited all the capitals of the Western Balkans: Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb and Ljubliana.  The following are some of the songs which inspired me and some of the music which I found in the record stores. It comprises trashy house music, Gypsy music, Turbo Folk, Gypsy Punk, and many other sub genres or cross genres. I label it as Balkan on my computer but in reality they are from numerous different places including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, U.S.A, Netherlands, Germany and so on and so on……………enjoy!