As members of an atypical orchestra, the seven musicians composing Captain Stambolov are in love with traditional world music and very much into hybrid, wild sounds, as they turn the Brass Band’s codes upside down. Exploring the Balkan tradition in their own way, they display a Balkan Acid realm, fed on modern sonorities.
Their music is a reinvention that puts together the eminent eastern brass band flight of lyricism and unexpected, though always relevant arrangements.
On stage, analog synth, old-school keyboards and thundering brass instruments offer a swirl under the stars, on the asymmetric and busted groove of supercharged drums and helicon. Genuine marathon of absolute energy, their gigs are like a wave of sounds and moves, during which the crowd gets on a transcendental trip throughout the rhythms of well-knit choreographies.
Drawing on its ever-growing maturity, and on more than 150 gigs all around Europe, Captain Stambolov is about to release its second album, untitled Pulsar Quest. Recorded in collaboration with Giannis Diskos (Imam Baïldi), the band confirms this way its intention to reconnect with the origins’ roughness, and beyond the party — more cosmic rather than a stroboscopic — to mix old Greek blues and Bulgarian dances that come with modern, powerful and electric sounds.