Orkestar Kriminal

Aujourd'hui, des militants environnementalistes demandent à Justin Trudeau de tenir ses promesses, Rich Kidd continue de découvrir le hip-hop autochtone au Canada, des clowns se moquent des patrouilles racistes en Finlande, et on assiste à une répétition du groupe gangsta-folk Orkestar Kriminal. - VICE TV

Orkestar Kriminal est une bande de punks qui joue les chansons du punk d’un autre âge : celui des années 1920 et 1930, avec ses mondes interlopes, ses cabarets enfumés et ses atmosphères glauques. Ici, les chansons sont louches et lousses, le jeu est en freestyle, les enregistrements en une seule prise, les langues nombreuses et l’atmosphère, absolument irrésistible.

En mars 2015, les Montréalais faisaient paraître Tummel, un disque qui a remporté un prix Gamiq pour l’album roots de l’année. Ils lancent maintenant l’album en vinyle, et leur compère Geoff Berner, de Vancouver, en fera autant dans le cadre d’une minitournée avec eux au Québec et en Ontario. On démarre ce jeudi à La Vitrola.

Geoff Berner ? « On joue un peu le même style et on est comme les rebelles du klezmer, répond Giselle Claudia Webber, artiste colorée et meneuse d’Orkestar Kriminal. Les sujets dont il traite sont toujours un peu anarchistes. Il mélange le punk avec le klezmer et c’est un super bon écrivain. J’adore un musicien qui prend ses paroles au sérieux. »

Celles des « criminels montréalais » sont inspirées des bas quartiers de la Moldavie, de la Grèce, du Maroc, de l’Ukraine, de la Pologne, de l’Argentine et au-delà. À la base, le ganovim-loshn, ce yiddish des voleurs de Varsovie, d’Odessa et d’Istanbul ; puis à la longue, une inspiration élargie jusqu’aux narcocorridos mexicains pré-El Chapo, de même qu’à des hymnes rébétiques des tanières de haschich de l’underground grec.

La délinquance pour survivre

Globalement, les textes choisis forment une trame sonore des milieux clandestins pendant la Grande Dépression. Giselle explique : « Les personnages de nos chansons sont délinquants pour survivre. Ils ont besoin de fric, et quand ils se font poigner, c’est encore plus de misère et de souffrance pour eux. Il faut comprendre que c’est la situation économique qui les amène vers ce chemin. Mais, encore aujourd’hui et peu importe où, c’est une histoire plus globale et il faut voir tous les côtés de l’histoire. »

Des exemples ? Giselle en raconte quelques-uns : « Une chanson en yiddish traite de l’histoire d’un esclavage humain qui passait par les femmes juives d’Ukraine, qu’on emmenait par bateau en Argentine en leur promettant une meilleure vie. Arrivées là, elles devaient se prostituer. Une autre chanson parle d’une femme en Russie. Je pense qu’elle était la leader d’un gang anarchiste. La chanson est assez connue en Russie, mais les gens n’avaient pas le droit de la chanter, fait que ce sont souvent les immigrants qui la chantaient. »

En studio, les Kriminals y vont à l’ancienne : on installe les musiciens autour d’un microphone, on place la voix en avant, et le tuba, loin dans le coin. On enregistre en direct et on improvise à volonté. « Enregistrer comme dans les années 1920, c’est aussi une façon d’épargner du fric. I’m a cheap leader. J’ai une petite fille à nourrir, fait que c’est ça : one take, un jour, on a fini », rigole Giselle. Plus sérieusement, elle ajoute, à propos de la scène : « Je trouve que l’improvisation est la recette gagnante pour qu’un groupe survive. En improvisant, le sang coule vite. »

Et avec le temps, il y a plus : « Le but, c’est de représenter toutes les communautés culturelles de Montréal, sauf les francophones et les anglophones. Je trouve qu’ici, à cause de l’histoire politique, les gens s’intéressent beaucoup aux racines culturelles de quelqu’un. À cause de cela, je pense qu’il n’aurait pas été possible de former Orkestar Kriminal ailleurs qu’à Montréal », conclut Giselle. Prochaine étape : des chansons créoles. - Le Devoir

Le répertoire multilingue d'Orkestar Kriminal évoque la délinquance des années 20, 30 ou 40. Qu'il fût balkanique, maghrébin, asiatique ou latino-américain, tout un répertoire chansonnier témoignait alors de ces pauvres gens contraints à la prostitution, au trafic ou à la consommation illégale de narcotiques. Voilà l'étonnant corpus de cette formation d'ici, dont le premier album a pour titre Tummel, soit «chaos» en yiddish.

Giselle Webber est la louve alpha de la meute Orkestar Kriminal. Instinctive, très intelligente, très douée. Déjantée? Assurément. Le genre d'artiste dont on admire le déséquilibre dans l'expression.

On l'a connue dans les années 2000, alors que le son montréalais surfait sur toutes les vagues indies. Après avoir fait dans le punk ado à Toronto où elle avait vécu son adolescence, cette native de Halifax, élevée aussi à Vancouver, a fait comme tant de jeunes artistes anglos venus à Montréal: s'inscrire à McGill pour finalement se consacrer à la musique.

La chanteuse fut la figure de proue des groupes The Hot Springs et Gigi French. Elle a aussi traversé des périodes troubles avant de trouver un certain équilibre dans les Laurentides, soit à Saint-Faustin, où elle vit paisiblement avec son enfant et son mari groenlandais.

«J'ai une certaine faiblesse, confie-t-elle... Il est donc mieux pour moi de vivre à la campagne. L'accès à l'alcool y est limité, le dépanneur est loin de ma maison où je peux composer et enregistrer. Ça sonne super bien ! Et puis je suis une maman, donc...»

Giselle Webber rappelle que la naissance de cet Orkestar Kriminal, ensemble à géométrie variable (jusqu'à 12 participants l'incluant), fut on ne peut plus spontanée.

«En septembre 2012, mes amis musiciens et moi voulions assister à plusieurs concerts de Pop Montréal, nous cherchions le moyen d'obtenir des entrées gratuites. Dan Seligman [le directeur artistique de Pop] nous avait échangé des passes contre un spectacle de notre cru.»

«Nous avions alors réuni ce groupe de 12 musiciens, juste une semaine avant le festival. Nous en avions aimé le son, c'est devenu un vrai groupe.»

Rapidité d'absorption et d'exécution, impro, voilà autant de caractéristiques d'Orkestar Kriminal, dont l'album Tummel fut réalisé l'an dernier par le renommé Howard Bilerman au non moins renommé studio Hotel2Tango, ce qui valut à cet enregistrement d'être consacré «album roots de l'année» au GAMIQ 2015.

«Les musiciens de ce groupe sont super doués, affirme Giselle Webber. Très vite, ils peuvent assimiler un style et aussi improviser autour des thèmes de chaque chanson. Souvent, ça sonne comme si nous avions longtemps répété.»

Au-delà du klezmer

Qu'on ne s'y méprenne, prévient la chanteuse, Orkestar Kriminal n'est ni un groupe juif ni un groupe klezmer comme on pourrait le supposer aux premières écoutes.

«On compte des juifs dans la formation (dont moi-même puisque j'ai un parent juif), mais cela n'en est pas l'identité première. À cause de nos origines, certains d'entre nous avons une sensibilité pour la musique klezmer, mais cela ne représente pas pour nous un objectif unique. De fil en aiguille, nous avons quand même attiré d'excellents musiciens de style klezmer; notre clarinettiste israélien et notre guitariste américain sont respectés au sein de cette communauté. Bien sûr, nous connaissons de mieux en mieux ce style et son orchestration.»

Effectivement, Orkestar Kriminal s'inspire de l'instrumentation acoustique typique du klezmer, sans pour autant vouloir en dupliquer les règles.

«Nous jouons souvent à 12, mais la formation peut se réduire à 8, 4 ou même 3 musiciens. Nous aimons que cela reste acoustique et mobile, car nous pouvons jouer partout: dans les parcs, dans la rue, dans le métro...»

De surcroît, le répertoire de cet Orkestar Kriminal déborde largement celui des musiques juives ou tziganes.

«Ça a commencé avec une base d'Europe de l'Est (Moldavie, Ukraine, etc.), après quoi nous avons interprété des chansons du Mexique, de Russie, de Grèce, d'Argentine, du Maroc, du Cambodge ou du Viêtnam. Nous pigeons dans ce très vaste répertoire des années 20, 30 ou 40 (sauf l'anglais ou le français), car il est du domaine public libre de droits. Ainsi, nous reprenons les narcocorridors mexicains, les rebetika grecques ou encore de vieilles chansons turques faisant état du trafic de drogue et de l'addiction aux narcotiques ou à l'alcool.»

Répertoire multilingue

Polyglotte, Giselle Webber interprète ce répertoire qui compte huit langues, en plus d'en parler quatre couramment.

«Chaque langue, soulève-t-elle, est une voie d'exploration pour le chant. Ça ajoute de nouvelles touches, de nouvelles inflexions à la voix. Ainsi, je chante les accros, les putes, ces Juives ukrainiennes devenues esclaves du sexe en Argentine. Fait intéressant, toutes ces chansons ne font pas la promotion du crime (comme ça se passe souvent dans le hip-hop), mais en évoquent plutôt la condition, la souffrance et aussi les moments festifs. Partout dans le monde, ces sujets étaient récurrents entre les deux guerres mondiales. Vu la pauvreté généralisée, plusieurs étaient menés à faire un peu n'importe quoi pour survivre.»

Six ou sept décennies plus tard? Lumière au bout du... Tummel.

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Lancement de l'album Tummel en format vinyle et concert d'Orkestar Kriminal à La Vitrola, ce soir, à 20 h. - La Presse

Un nouveau clip tourné dans le métro pour Orkestar Kriminal
Pour le clip de la chanson « Der Shmayser » qui paraît aujourd'hui, la formation de malfrats musicaux Orkestar Kriminal a pris d'assaut les wagons du métro de Montréal.

Maryse Boyce
2016-04-18

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« Je voue un amour inconditionnel à la nourriture, je trouve que tout passe par là! » - Maïa, Petits Béguins
Affaires
Le St-Pierre: Hardbacon et le monde de la Fintech selon Julien Brault

Giselle Webber, chanteuse et leader de la formation, raconte le tournage dans le communiqué de presse: « On a filmé le vidéoclip complet sans permis et, en connaissance de cause, on a réservé un bon montant du budget pour payer les amendes éventuelles. On faisait BEAUCOUP de bruit, de sorte que les conducteurs arrêtaient le métro en entendant notre vacarme. On se mettait alors à courir, on changeait de ligne, et on recommençait, jusqu’à ce que le prochain métro s’arrête. Ça s’est corsé quand on est arrivés à la station Lionel-Groulx : on courrait partout avec nos instruments et on a dû tourner en vitesse avant qu’ils nous arrêtent, mais on s’est tout de même fait prendre. On a terminé le tournage le dimanche de Pâques, parce qu’on savait qu’il y aurait très peu d’agents de la STM au boulot ce jour-là. On a tenté notre chance et au final, ça a été l’expérience de tournage la plus excitante que j’ai jamais vécue. »

Comme quoi la réalité est parfois le meilleur concept qu'on puisse trouver.

Rappelons que le premier album Tummel d'Orkestar Kriminal a remporté le Lucien de l'album roots de l'année au dernier GAMIQ.

La vidéo sera lancé demain soir au restaurant Sala Rosa, à Montréal.

Dates complètes de la tournée:

19 avril: LANCEMENT DE LA VIDÉO | Festival HOWL, Sala Rosa (restaurant) - Montréal (avec Calar Heimta et Kutsi Merki) - Baron Mag

Tummel – Escaping the Francophone-Anglophone Dichotomy
Slum-based Punk Band Orkestar Kriminal Launches its Debut Album Tummel at Divan Orange next Friday on March 27th

Fringe Arts by Flora Magnan — Published March 16, 2015 | Comment

Orkestar Kriminal Photo Jessica Danielle Cohen

For those unfamiliar with this Montreal-based band, Orkestar Kriminal is a group of eight diverse musicians who label themselves as “a band of punks.” They formed the band in 2012 in order to obtain free passes to the Pop Montreal Festival and have stayed together ever since.

The members are all talented improvisers who met lead singer and guitarist Giselle Webber when they worked with her to form the orchestra for Gigi French, Webber’s French jazz-diva persona, which is known for her improvisational performances.

This experience was especially important for their album Tummel – which means chaos in Yiddish – because it was recorded the way albums were created in the 1920s. This method consists of spreading the musicians throughout the room around ribbon microphones. To mix the album, you have to place the microphones and artists in the perfect locations since the recording can barely be edited afterwards.

Webber confessed that recording in this style was a lot of pressure for the band but that it was also very rewarding because it is exactly the way music was recorded in the old days. “A lot of weird sounds you might not be expecting show up” she said, “and you can’t alter it. You have to accept things that are imperfect.” According to Webber, this type of work forces one to accept flaws as an artist. “A lot of beauty comes out of that which you couldn’t hear with modern recording,” she said.

Another particularity of this album is its cultural background. It compiles criminal songs from the 1920s from countries all around the world. Webber first came up with the idea for this album when she received a scholarship from KlezKanada, a Jewish cultural organization that holds a retreat in the Laurentides every summer, which gathers the best musicians from all over the world to give workshops and teach people how to play instruments.

There, she attended a workshop on underground Yiddish music that really caught her attention. Webber says she immediately wanted to play these songs live. “They were catchy,” she said. “They talked to the funk in me; they talked about hard times, but in a really well written way. There are lots of plays on words and smart lines in them.”

Orkestar Kriminal even received a grant from the government to record this album, which is particularly ironic when you consider that most of these songs were illegal at the time of their creation. For example, the sentence in Russia during the 1920s was execution for anyone caught performing or recording “Polomany Kryla,” a song which comes from the Roma people.

Webber started looking for criminalized music from around the world. In a way, her research almost became musical anthropology. “Most of the songs I found were thanks to word-to-mouth,” she added. “At first, I was asking everyone I knew, but then people started coming to me with songs.”

Webber chose to sing in Yiddish, Greek, Spanish, Hebrew and Russian, but not in French or English, in order to escape the old Anglophone-Francophone debate that’s all too familiar in Montreal. “This [multi-lingual] album is based on Montreal and all the communities that we have here,” she said.

Performing these songs taught Webber a lot, as every song had a history that made it a sensitive subject. She explained that one has to be careful culturally and use the songs appropriately. “It’s especially important with pronunciation. For every song, I had a tutor, a teacher, a connection to the community.”

With this album, Webber hopes to bring all the communities together. Tummel has political implications: as it is in neither French nor English, it aims to recognize that Quebec is a province of immigrants. Webber advocates that “we are all on foreign soil, anyone here not a native is an immigrant and [it is important that we] recognize ourselves as an immigrant nation.” She hopes that we can “swallow the pill of colonialism, get away from the French-English debate over who owns the land [and] all join together.”

And if Tummel proves anything, it’s just that: there is a certain transformative power in music.

Orkestar Kriminal // March 27th 2015 // Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent Blvd.) // 8:30 p.m.// tickets $12 at the door - The Link

With the brilliant concept of collecting and performing songs about gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s from all over the world, Orkestar Kriminal is one of the most unique bands you are ever going to hear. While they are all lovely people individually, they do take on a sort of "gang of tough punks" reputation when playing these songs. With a whole slew of new songs added to the repertoire, they are launching their debut LP, Tummel (which means chaos in Yiddish), at Divan Orange. Joining them in the festivities will be none other than Mister Lantosh Lalonde with yet another musical project, Bella Morta Duo, which "draws from Astor Piazzola as much as it does from Motorhead." Sounds pretty amazing! You can buy tickets online or at the door for $10. Doors open at 8:30, show starts at 9:30. - CJLO

A band with a Kriminal past: Montreal-based group brings Yiddish gangster tunes to The Garnet Sunday

By Kennedy Gordon, Peterborough Examiner

Wednesday, January 20, 2016 9:00:02 EST AM
SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER The Montreal band Orkestar Kriminal, which specializes in old Yiddish gangster tunes, Greek blues and other long-forgotten folk music about crime, plays at The Garnet on Hunter St. W. on Sunday.

SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER The Montreal band Orkestar Kriminal, which specializes in old Yiddish gangster tunes, Greek blues and other long-forgotten folk music about crime, plays at The Garnet on Hunter St. W. on Sunday.

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You've probably never heard anything like this.

Orkestar Kriminal is a Montreal-based musical ensemble focused on playing a rare and almost forgotten kind of music - old European songs about crime, sung in a variety of languages, about booze, drugs, death and arrests.

The band, coming to The Garnet on Sunday, was founded by musician Giselle Claudia Webber, who already had a well-rounded musical resume before venturing into obscure world music. She'd fronted punk bands, rapped under the name Giselle Numba One and even sang jazzy torch songs.

But, she says, she was looking for something new when she discovered this music while at a klezmer camp in the Laurentians.

"I was a little out of my element in klezmer camp," she says. "But then I found these people playing Yiddish gangster tunes, and that's all I did for the rest of the camp."

Yiddish gangster music developed in the 1930s in the poverty-ravaged pre-war underbellies of Istanbul and several Eastern Bloc cities. These are songs about crime and criminals with detailed story-telling lyrics, all framed around traditional folk instrumentation.

This new adventure led Webber to what's called Greek blues, a little-heard form of music that emerged in Greece in the 1920s. From there she discovered that cultures around the world all had their own form of criminal folk songs. She's found, and learned, songs from Afghanistan, Haiti, Turkey, Poland, Argentina, Moldova "¦ even Mexican narcocorrido crime ballads.

"There were tons of songs about crimes people had to commit and what happened to them afterward," she says. "This was the depression. There was no dough. People who weren't really criminals were driven to a life of crime, and those stories are in this music."

All of this makes its way into the Orkester Kriminal mix, with her band adapting the old 78s and sheet music Webber digs up in her ongoing effort to find new old songs.

Many such tunes are lost. Many were never recorded. She often visits aging Montrealers from different cultures who may know the words to these forgotten tunes, or point her in the right direction.

"It's crazy how brutally honest these lyrics are - they didn't sugar-coat anything," she says.

She sings the songs in their original languages - she's multilingual, but manages to sing songs in languages she doesn't know - and relies on her band to bring the songs to life. Instruments include guitars, accordion, sousaphone, bouzouki, fiddle, trumpet, clarinet, steel guitar and all sorts of drums and percussion.

"None of us had played world music before," she says. "But as we played more and more, we were found by actual world music players who were skilled at these instruments, and so they joined up with these punk and jazz nerds. We're a big mishmash, and it's working out."

What began as a lark has become her full-time gig.

"It's nice to have a challenge like this," she says. - Peterborough Examiner

Montreal old-world gangster band Orkestar Kriminal have already won an award for their 2015 album Tummel — a GAMIQ for Best Roots Album— but they’ve been waiting ever since its release last March for shipments of the record on vinyl.

It’s become a familiar story for bands everywhere: as the popularity of vinyl in North America increases (2015 sales were up 40 per cent from 2014), pressing plants are being overwhelmed with orders. It’s been suggested that major-label albums by artists like Adele are routinely prioritized, leaving independent acts waiting for their merchandise for months and months. Whether or not that’s been the case at Toronto’s Cascade Record Pressing, Orkestar Kriminal’s plant of choice, it’s pretty obvious that this continent needs more vinyl manufacturers.

“It’s like we’re in a Communist country or something,” says singer and band leader Giselle Webber. “Why can’t they produce what the market wants?”

“But it’s nice — good quality vinyl,” she says of their album, which has arrived just in time for their Montreal show this week, and the tour to follow.

The Orkestar will be in full effect for their hometown show, with all 12 members, including some new faces and new sounds.

“We got this great, crazy-pro clarinet player, he’s Ukrainian from Israel, and it’s a completely different style. We had a jazz clarinet player whereas now we have one who’s super klezmer,” Webber explains, noting that their drummer is now playing a hand drum, they’ve traded in a tuba for a sousaphone and they have a new steel-string guitarist, too.

“We also have a back-up singer, Anna from les Deuxluxes — she’s frickin’ amazing at harmonies. The double girl singer thing makes me feel like I’m in Heart or ABBA.

“I think the band’s just gonna get bigger, really.”

Webber says their next record will expand on the old-school international sounds of Tummel (read about that here), representing more of Montreal’s ethnic groups. “We can’t have a criminal underworld band without a couple of Italian songs — come on! Some Arabic stuff, too — there’s a whole slew of sketchy tunes in other languages out there.”

Prior to the next record, and even before Orkestar Kriminal embark on their tour, the band is working on a project that could get them into trouble with the STM.

“We’re about to shoot a music video where we’re gonna run into the metro and play in the cars,” Webber explains, “but we don’t have a permit from the transit people to do this, so we’re just gonna go with a camera crew and we have a budget for the fines we’re going to get. If we can get away with it, it’ll look pretty cool. We’re going to have a fake metro cop chasing after us and stuff; it may be kind of slapstick. It’ll be fun, and it’ll be worth it.” ■

Orkestar Kriminal co-headline a double vinyl-launch show with Geoff Berner at la Vitrola (4602 St-Laurent) on Thursday, Jan. 21, 8 p.m., $12/$15 - Cult MTL

TO DO Tonight: Orkestar Kriminal Album Launch

Posted on March 27, 2015. Written by Rachel Levine
orkestar criminal orkestar criminal

If you like your music a little Yiddish, a little gypsy, a little bit criminal, and a lot crazy, check out the Orkestar Kriminal release of their new album Tummel. This eight piece band that plays music of the ’20s and ’30s (or at least, that sounds like its from that period) is fronted by Giselle Webber. Chances are you’ve heard her name before; she weaves her way in and out of Montreal’s music scene, reinventing herself each time. The new album has music from Moldova, Morocco, Greece, Ukraine, Poland, and ARgentina. The vinyl version contains three extra tracks. $10

Orkestar Kriminal’s album launch takes place March 27 at Divan Orange (4234 St Laurent). 8:30 p.m. - Montreal Rampage

Video Interview - Spotlight TV

Hairy-chested Greek mobsters and Jewish sharpies stalk through the swindlings, shaftings and gullings on Orkestar Kriminal’s debut EP Zontani! L’bin! Levende!, being launched Friday night at Lion d’Or.
Photograph by: Lars Rosing
MONTREAL - “I never listen to the style of music I’m making,” Giselle Webber says. “If I’m making a hip hop record, I won’t listen to hip hop for a very long time, because I’m afraid of subconsciously ripping it off. So when I was in Hot Springs (from 2004 to 2008), I was listening to all this weird Greek underground criminal music ...”

We’ll assume she’s either listening to whale song or Christian anthems now that she’s PLAYING in Orkestar Kriminal, a wild 12-piece spooling out Old World crook laments in more languages than a Main deli in 1919. Hairy-chested Greek mobsters and Jewish sharpies stalk through the swindlings, shaftings and gullings on debut EP Zontani! L’bin! Levende! (Live! in Greek/Yiddish/Danish), launched Friday night at Lion d’Or. Yes. It’s the Original Gangsta.

Before we get there, props are OFFERED for Hot Springs. “Thanks for even knowing about that band,” she says, but it would have been impossible to miss noticing the fire pillar of a girl fronting the indie rockers who tore it up far too briefly on the Montreal scene. The Volcano album (2007) you should own.

But even that was at least two incarnations ago. A girl of many persona, Webber STARTED out in punk, and has been underground female rapper Giselle Numba One and loungey femme fatale Gigi French. Since coming out of hibernation (more below), Webber has immersed herself in the inter-war Yiddish of Ganovim-loshn and elemental criminals.

She was living in a Griffintown loft “with the dude from Godspeed, David Bryant. He had this crazy record collection. And I was also in Red Mass when Hot Springs was ending and Roy (Vuccino, bandleader) is Turkish, so he would hand me tons of records to listen to. I was immersed in all this strange music.” There was also Cambodian music, before Cambodian was hot.

She was just steeping herself in an international crock pot of crooks, but still “had enough balls TO APPLY for this KlezKanada grant in the Laurentians, and —” What, you haven’t applied for a KlezKanada grant? It’s just one of the most prestigious programs on Yiddish culture in the world. Last summer, she did a workshop on music from Odessa and Istanbul and Warsaw, “these old underworld Yiddish songs. When I got back from KlezKanada, within a week I had a band formed and I had a show booked a week later.”

I’m guessing she wasn’t fluent in Ladino, the JudeoSpanish language spoken by ... not many Montrealers. But it’s a risky guess, given her. “I spoke German already, so Yiddish was pretty easy to learn. Greek ... because I spoke Spanish, I found them similar, for some reason. You speak enough languages and they blend together. I speak Cantonese a little, but that’s nowhere close to Khmer ... it took me a long time to find a teacher in Montreal.” She also used a COMPUTER to teach herself phonetically.

“And I had to find some really great musicians to PLAY that kind of stuff. I mean, the rhythms are weird ...”

She comes by the musical wanderlust legitimately. Her dad was a sailor. And for laughs, she found out via genealogical exploration that she was part Jewish. “And I found out I was part Roma at the same time, so it’s even crazier.”

Fair enough. But what was the appeal of these songs?

“I was in punk bands for a long time, and these lyrics remind me of punk.” Also, she was confined to a mental institution for a time against her will, a story that’s clearly too long for this article. “But it was brutal, they inject things into you, they give you pills that you have to swallow. And I didn’t know a lot about patients’ rights then. I learned later that I could have left, I could have refused medication. But they don’t let you know. And the meds turned me into a vegetable. I couldn’t speak for an entire year.

“But I met a lot of people who’d been in prison, who told me there was a lot more freedom in prison than there is in a mental institution.” And she connected to the notion of prisoner.

“A lot of the songs (I heard) are prisoner laments. I can identify with people on the outskirts of society. I felt a greater connection with them than anything you’d hear from you’re typical love song.”

There was also a desire to shake up the oatmeal sententiousness of too much folk music. “The world music scene is just so hippie, you know? There’s no oomph to it. I like good hippie like anyone else, but they’re just so full of sunshine and buttercups. I wanted to bring an edge to it.”

And then there was an interesting element of cultural redress.

“Greeks have a pretty tough image, like Italians do. But it seems that, over time, I feel, the Jewish man has lost his edge. It’s very common to think of the Jew as a Woody Allen type of neurotic weaselly archetype, which I find very frustrating. Why is it that the Jewish women are the strong ones, but Jewish men have role models that are these weaselly guys? What about these hairy-chested no-nonsense wise-guy Jews as an OPTION?”

Well, what about ’em? Giselle Webber is in their corner. She’s a polyglot. Her mother tongue is oomph.

Orkestar Kriminal launch Zontani! L’bin! Levende! at Lion d’Or, 1676 Ontario St. E., on Friday with Ira Lee and the Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra. Tickets are $12.50 in advance, available at Phonopolis, Sound Central, l’Oblique, Atom Heart, Cheap Thrills, or ONLINE at LaVitrine.com, or $15 at the door.

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Come ONE, come all! Please join the multi-talented polyglot Montreal ensemble Orkestrar Kriminal tomorrow for the Lion d'Or launch of Zontani! L'bin! Levende!, their new EP.

Orkestar Kriminal is Yiddish slang for "Prison Orchestra." The group consists of a dozen members and features a wide array of INSTRUMENTS, such as: guitar, musical saw, tambourine, trumpet, violin, tuba, clarinet, accordion, bouzouki, and vocals. These instruments resound and layer in a playful high-energy exchange that breathes new life into traditional music styles, like klezmer, folk, and cabaret. Appropriately, the title of their EP, Zontani! L'bin! Levende! , has an equally vigorous meaning, translating to "Live! Live! Live" in Greek, Yiddish, and Danish respectively.

Orkestar Kriminal goes beyond writing songs in other languages -as though that wasn't enough. The lyrics themselves delve deeply into the history and cultural identity of several nations. The songs are also consistent with the band's name, weaving captivating narratives about a thing that can be simultaneously portrayed as base and glamorous, but that is largely unknown to most of us: a city's unlawful underbelly.

"Our main focus is old criminal underworld songs from the 20s and 30s in any language but English," said vocalist and guitarist Giselle Claudia Webber. "So we have Mexican narco corridos songs from the late 20s, old 1930s Yiddish gangster tunes from Warsaw, Odessa, Istanbul, Russia, and Argentina, Greek Rebetika songs from the same time period telling stories of the both the mother-land as well as overseas migrant workers in North America..."

The EP was the result of an authentic feel-good time enjoyed by skilled musical friends. The day after the Mayan calendar ended, Lisa GAMBLE hosted a closing-party at La Sala Rossa for a festival she had curated with Eastern Bloc called Objet Inusité. At this point, Orkestar Kriminal had performed many shows and had many YouTube clips of these shows, but did not have any audio recordings. So, they asked UN drummer and musical maven Jen Reimer, who was also PLAYING that show, if she could set up a few mics to record Orkestar Kriminal's set. That very same live recording became Zontani! L'bin! Levende! .

"What I love about this band is that there are giant elements of improvisation to a lot of the songs that we play. So, I am ridiculously into recording our shows because every show is fantastically unique. For this reason, with Orkestar Kriminal, live recordings are the only way to go," said Giselle. "There was a certain magic in the room at the Sala Rossa that night. Winter solstice is an incredible time, straight up. So I'm proud of what we came up with in the spirit of the evening."

Orkestar Kriminal was formed in September of last year immediately upon Giselle's return from a klezmer retreat in the Laurentians which featured virtuosos from all over the world. The following week, she organized a show with a few key members from the Gigi French Orchestra and together they played music inspired by her time at the retreat. Initially, the group did not have a name, so they referred to themselves simply as Giselle Webber. A few days before Pop Montréal 2012, Giselle decided to add about eight more people to the band and Orkestar Kriminal was born.

"We are all in the same boat with this band, we may come from different backgrounds in terms of music, culture or lifestyle, but these songs are new to each and every ONE of us," said Giselle. "The entire band is becoming a more rounded, free-thinking musician as a result of our collective experience in Orkestar. I wouldn't give that up for anything in the world."

Orkestar Kriminal hopes to play an assortment of festivals around the world. They also plan to record a full-length record in a giant, beautiful-sounding room with only a couple of well placed mics. The whole album will be mixed according to the placement of the musicians. For the more immediate future, they will be performing a double-set at Bobards April 19th.

Lion d'Or is located at 1676 Ontario East.

Visit Orkestrar Kriminal's facebook page.

Zontani! L'bin! Levende!:

1. Shimke Khazer
2. To Toust
3. Bim Bam Busse
4. Kh'vel Shoyn Mer Nisht Ganvenen
5. Kapnouloudes

Photograph by Lars Rosing - Midnight Poutine

Giselle Webber: «Comme nous interprétons des chansons en yiddish, le sens de ces belles paroles se perd souvent dans notre public, malgré mes mimiques et gestes théâtraux! En JOUANT à ce festival, on aura une belle occasion de se faire entendre, mais aussi de se faire comprendre par un plus grand nombre de personnes qui comprennent cette langue!»
Photo : Chantal Allard

Le collectif «gangsta-folk» Orkestar Kriminal PARTICIPE à l’édition 2014 du Festival de musique juive de Montréal. Entrevue avec la voix du projet: Giselle Webber.

C’est connu, Giselle Webber enchaîne les projets. Après avoir mené le regretté quatuor rock The Hot Springs, l’énergique chanteuse poursuivait avec un violon d’Ingres rap (Giselle Numba ONE), un groupe pop francophone (Gigi French), un passage au sein du combo rock à géométrie variable Red Mass, puis Orkestar Kriminal, un ensemble folk s’inspirant du klezmer-loshn, un argot yiddish utilisé par les klezmorims, des musiciens itinérants juifs marginaux du 19e siècle.

De la stigmatisation à l’inspiration
«Pour être totalement honnête, je crois que le projet a commencé pendant mon «incarcération»», confie-t-elle, en faisant référence à une expérience d’institutionnalisation forcée. «Se remettre d’une telle épreuve prend beaucoup de temps. Se sentir proscrite, rejetée du monde; sans compter la stigmatisation qui accompagne tout ça!» En 2012, la chanteuse et musicienne reprenait son courage à deux mains et obtenait une bourse pour participer à une retraite de Klezkanada, une organisation faisant la promotion de l’héritage culturel et artistique juif. «Il y avait un atelier sur les chansons yiddish du monde interlope. Après avoir appris quelques chansons du REGISTRE, l’envie de remonter sur scène m’est revenue. C’est ce qui est arrivé, deux semaines plus tard, avec des collègues de Gigi French!»

Deux années plus tard, Webber est mère et heureuse au sein de ses criminels qui comptent sur un maxi live bien reçu et de plus en plus de concerts à son actif, dont une PARTICIPATIONtrès attendue à l’édition 2014 du Festival de musique juive de Montréal. «Comme nous interprétons des chansons en yiddish, le sens de ces belles paroles se perd souvent auprès de notre public, malgré mes mimiques et gestes théâtraux! En JOUANT à ce festival, on aura une belle occasion de se faire entendre, mais aussi de se faire comprendre par un plus grand nombre de personnes qui comprennent cette langue!»

Puis, des albums en série
Non contente de renouer avec la scène, Webber travaille également sur deux enregistrements à venir en compagnie de ses sbires.
Ainsi, Gigi French refera bientôt surface sous une nouvelle formule plus swing et où les chœurs prendront plus de place. «À ce jour, on a une quinzaine de pièces plus enjouées – et même plus politisées! – que ce qu’on retrouvait sur Cannelle, paru il y a quelques années», commente-t-elle.

Du côté d’Orkestar Kriminal, les loubards repousseront – encore une fois – leur zone de confort. En plus de réinterpréter un répertoire pas piqué des vers, l’ensemble s’apprête à entrer à l’Hotel2Tango en compagnie d’Howard Bilerman (ingénieur de son qui a également collaboré avec Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor et plusieurs autres) pour travailler sur un premier album… produit dans la tradition des enregistrements des années 20. «Tout est capté par des micros à ruban placés stratégiquement. Le mix se fait donc en temps réel et en disposant les musiciens à différents endroits du studio. Ce qui veut aussi dire que la voix doit être enregistrée en même temps que les instruments et qu’on n’a pas droit aux overdubs», conclut-elle – petit cri de panique à l’appui – tout en glissant que l’œuvre paraîtra au printemps en vinyle et sur Sainte-Cécile, l’étiquette numérique de Dare To CARE.

Le Festival de musique juive de Montréal se tient du 24 au 28 août. Programmation COMPLÈTE sur montrealjewishmusicfest.com. - Journal Voir

XXX 5 o’clock news material XXX us at soundcheck for our e.p. release XXX - CBC News

Multilingual Montreal ensemble Orkestar Kriminal have made a name for their unique approach to performance, offering covers of obscure material. They were last on our radar in 2013, when they took on prison songs with their EP Zontani! L'bin! Levende!. Now, they've announced a new full-length.

The album is called Tummel and sees the eight-piece group exploring another fascinating collection of songs, with material originally from Moldova, Morocco, Greece, Ukraine, Poland and Argentina, among others.

Tummel was recorded with Howard Bilerman at Hotel2Tango. "What really makes it special is that we used recording techniques from the 1920s," the group's Giselle Webber said in a press release. "We recorded it as a live set and controlled the sound by placing everybody at a specific distance from the microphone."

Tummel will arrive on March 27 via Sainte-Cécile. For now, Orkestar Kriminal have also shared "To Toust," a song sung in Turkish and Greek. That track can be streamed below. - Exclaim!

There’s no other band quite like Orkestar Kriminal. They rehearse, play shows and make records (they’re launching their Tummel LP this week) like any other gang of musicians, but all their material, and even the associated artwork, is stolen. The songs come from Greece, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Cambodia, Mexico and beyond, most of them written during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Until Orkestar Kriminal lifted them from the public domain (a legal form of thievery), these songs were largely unheard, and almost never performed due to their subject matter: they’re all about the criminal underworld, documenting old-time gangstas worldwide.

This project was spearheaded by Giselle Webber, well known on the local scene for having fronted Hot Springs, sharing the spotlight with Roy Vucino in Red Mass, dropping beats and rhymes as Giselle Numba One and rocking the chanteuse vibe as Gigi French.

“I was on a bit of a musical hiatus and I really wanted to jump back on the stage,” Webber explains, “but my sense of pride in myself wasn’t quite strong enough to sing my own tunes. I wanted to sing other people’s songs, and at the same time I was discovering all this old music.”

On a scholarship to Klez Canada, an annual klezmer camp in the Laurentians, Webber attended a workshop on Yiddish criminal underworld songs by Berlin-based musician Daniel Kahn (who recently played a show in Montreal, incidentally).

“I went all gaga,” she says, “and I wanted to get the Gigi French crew together to learn how to play this music, all these dark, seedy, scuzzy songs. But I didn’t want it to be a klezmer band. I was trying to pursue anthropological musical research, sticking to this theme of public domain music from the inter-war period. It wasn’t difficult to find sketchy criminal underworld subjects from the ’30s because everybody was going through a hard time.”

And so Orkestar Kriminal learned how to play Greek Rebetika songs, Mexican narco-corrido songs and Russian underworld songs. The latter were largely played in secluded Romani cafés because, according to Webber, they “could get you murdered for performing them” in Russia, in their time. Luckily the band hasn’t experienced threats or violence when playing this material around Montreal, only the occasional quiet menace from mafia figures — having worked in bars and concert halls for years, Webber says the criminal element is easy to spot and almost impossible to avoid. But their presence, like the attendance of anyone from the various cultures the band is borrowing from at their shows, only adds pressure to play the songs perfectly.

“We’re thieves,” she says, “and you have to be sensitive not to offend while you’re outwardly stealing and profiting from music from other countries by songwriters that are dead. You have to earn back the respect you’ve lost from the get-go by performing the songs so well that you win everybody’s hearts in the end.”

One particularly sensitive and difficult area was covering Khmer songs from Cambodia, where the Khmer culture itself was largely destroyed via genocide in the 1970s.

“When you know that the original songwriter was forced to become Pol Pot’s girlfriend and be a sex slave and ended up dying in a labour camp, it’s like, how can I even perform this song? But I have to because these are beautiful songs, and these are all songs that died off with the [Khmer genocide]. When you decide to bring something like that back into the limelight, you have to do it with the same passion and the same fury that the original songwriters had. You’ve just got to appropriate it in a way that feels authentic to your own personal experience.”

Orkestar Kriminal’s multilingual lyrics have posed a significant challenge to Webber, but not as much as you might think: she already speaks many languages, including Cantonese, and has sought out tutors around town to build on her research and Google Translate exercises at home.

“I started to get a little bit of a reputation in Greek family restaurants as that chick who’s not Greek who sings Greek songs,” she says. “I have to have a link with the cultural community that I’m trying to represent. I need a human connection — it can’t just be anthropological. I happen to live in a town that has tons of people all over the world, so it’s just stupid to sit there in a library or on a computer when you could actually meet some awesome old man in a deli somewhere and have a fabulous conversation about it. The bridge is already built — you just have to be ballsy enough to cross it.” ■

Orkestar Kriminal launch their album Tummel at Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent) on Friday, March 27, 9:30 p.m., $10
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