Kultur Shock — Acoustic Live (Old Age Recording Co., 2023)
Seattle’s Kultur Shock, a popular band known for their eclectic fusion of Balkan melodies, punk rock, and heavy metal influences, has unveiled a fresh new album titled Kultur Shock Acoustic Live. The recording captured the band live at Seattle’s Town Hall cultural center on February 2, 2023.
Established in 1996 by frontman and trumpeter Gino Yevdjevich, alongside a fervent assembly of immigrant Balkan musicians, the ensemble has consistently forged a unique presence within the world music landscape.
This performance held particular significance as part of Town Hall’s Global Rhythms series, curated by the Seattle-based ethnomusicologist/producer Jon Kertzer. The event delved into the profound Sevdah Blues sounds rooted in the band’s musical heritage.
Kultur Shock’s influence spans a diverse musical spectrum, mixing experimental tones with the intensity of punk rock. While echoes of iconic groups like Gogol Bordello, System of a Down, Dubioza Kolektiv, Goran Bregovic, and mestizo music star Manu Chao resonate in their compositions, they maintain an unmistakable signature sound.
Gino Yevdjevich, from war-torn Sarajevo, settled in Seattle in the mid-1990s. He brought with him not only his vocal and songwriting skill, but also an unyielding ambition to create. Little did he anticipate that, after founding Kultur Shock in 1996, he would evolve into the de facto patriarch of a movement now casually known as “gypsy punk.”
“For years we were in no man’s land, and perhaps deservedly so because we are not your ancestors’ ethnic Balkan folk band,” says Gino. “We are also not your descendants’ exclusively English-speaking Anglo-Saxon punk/metal band. We are ourselves. Always have been. On this record, we did not just unplug our electric instruments and play acoustic guitars and drums with brushes, but rearranged our songs the way we believe these songs should be played acoustically. We did it the old-fashioned way, using ethnic instruments and playing our songs to the point of sometimes not even recognizing them. We had fun. We always do. That is what we do, have fun. We are doing this selfishly to make ourselves happy. That being said, we believe that art might be one of the rare, maybe the only activity of the humankind where selfishness is not just permitted but even preferred over trying to make others happy instead of yourself.
“We followed ourselves into new adventures of acoustic sound and cannot wait to show to the world what we found out. This is an ongoing experiment, such as our band. If we did care what the others think, we probably would have in the last 27 years played different kind of music altogether, something that the mainstream population can relate to. Instead, we chose to follow our heart. We do what we want and play what we like, and we are so fortunate to have our people (we do not want to call audience or fans) that are with us every step of the way. A long time ago, they gave us their love, and we gave them everything we got. I’m so happy that we did this record live. That’s who we are. We are not a punk/metal rock band, and we are not an ethnic/world music band. We just play music.”
Guitarist and vocalist Val Kiossovski added: “When we got the invitation from Town Hall to do a show that we have never done before, going unplugged or acoustic was a natural choice, considering we have some history in experimenting with such a format many years back on the road in Germany. I was a proponent of unplugged, Gino wanted to go full acoustic, and eventually we decided to go in the uncharted category of the acoustic format. As we were rehearsing for it, it became clear that we can’t just transfer arrangement as they were in our loud live set in the acoustic realm, but have to make all the necessary changes that make the songs breath, are as dynamically rich, and that the show culminates and resolves in the manner we are used to build it in our rock sets. That turned out to be quite a bit of work, mostly for our drummer and percussionist Chris [Stromquist], who had to translate the beats to a percussion set, and me, since the guitar/drum interaction is still the backbone of all that layers on top of it in our music, but the result was pretty amazing.
“For me that’s not at all a departure from what we do, but a different angle of interpreting old songs, traditional numbers, and new material in a different soundscape. Luckily, the band is built of amazing players that totally got into the meat and bones of the music to re-conceptualize its core, rather than just dress it up in a different outfit, which the simple unplugged concept would have resulted in. I’m very happy to have been very wrong about the potential of the all acoustic performance and the musical value of the live record that resulted from it.”
Musicians: Gino Yevdjevich on vocals, trumpet, percussion; Val Kiossovski on guitar, vocals; Chris Stromquist on drums and percussion; Amy Denio on saxophone, clarinet, bouzouki, guitar, vocals; Guy Michael Davis on bass, vocals; Eleni Govetason violin, saxophone, percussion, vocals.
Buy Kultur Shock Acoustic Live.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.