Music
Press
"Mientras, en la cercana plaza de Sant Jaume, dedicada a los conciertos de folk, destacó la actuación de los eslovenos de Terrafolk, que ofrecieron una verdadera lección de musicalidad y capacidad de comunicación convirtiéndose en uno de los descubrimientos que recordar de esta Mercè."
"Meanwhile, in the St. Jaume square nearby dedicated to folk music concerts, the performance of the Slovenes Terrafolk stood out, who offered a true lesson of musicality and communication ability, becoming one of the discoveries to remember from this "Mercè" festival. "
- (El Pais, Cataluna, Barcelona - 24/09/2007, L. HIDALGO / M. JURADO )
Of all ex-Yugoslav republics Slovenia has made least impact on the world music scene. And then in 2003 a band called Terrafolk seemingly appeared from nowhere and walked away with the audience award at the BBC Radio 3 awards for world music. Anyone who was lucky enough to catch them live at one of their triumphant UK dates in 2003 will know that Terrafolk live up to their name. Central and South European music played with an attitude to terrorise the complete authentic folk brigade. The instruments may be acoustic but the attitude is pure punk. Enthusiastic energy is a fantastic virtue on stage, but the one question was how this would translate onto record. Well the energy tangential humour and virtuosity are all there. Terrafolk on record are a lot better that I had imagined. The connection to the land and the declaration of intent in their name I got and plenty I didn’t expect at all multi-layered instrumentation. Tastefully chosen material, good production and the variety of moods and styles. Uptempo original and traditional tunes are done with a rip-roaring power worthy of Kennedy, slower ballads come with a cheeky nod and a wink, Bulgarian harmonies are arranged with gorgeous understatement, and there’s even a beautiful and Kitsch Latin number with genius deadpan ‘come to bed mama’ vocals. Everything is respected but nothing is sacred – Bregovic’s standard ‘Mesecina’ comes out like a 70s Bavaria tourist board commercial. Brilliant. - Jonathan Walton (sep/okt 2004 - SONGLINES MAGAZINE)
The Slovenian monsters of folk arrived on stage 20 minutes late in true Rock ‘n’ Roll fashion. A huge crowd was crammed into the glorious Spiegeltent by this time buzzing with anticipation, ready to witness what has become a ‘must see’ show at the Festival. Terrafolk do not display any of the stony faced seriousness that many traditional acts posses; their tongues are firmly in their cheeks, only making an appearance when either one of the four band members decides to unleash theirs in order to pull a rock star facial expression. The abundance of musical talent and diverse influences within the band combined together wonderfully tonight, making their opening gig of this year’s festival one that the sell out crowd will never forget. tw rating: 5/5 - Threeweeks magazine - Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Discography
Una & Balkan Bears Discography:
Between them Una and the Balkan Bears have played on over 100 records including:
Shakira
-Live From Paris (Sony) 2011
Terrafolk
-Ice Harvest 2011
-Full Circle (Menart) 2008
-Live at Queen's Hall 2006
-N'taka 2004
-Jumper of love 2002
- Stereo folk live 2001
Brian Eno
Lovely Bones Soundtrack 2009
The Killers
Live at Abbey Road (Channel 4) 2010
Smoke Fairies
Troubles (Music For Heroes) 2008
Gnarls Barkley
Crazy (BBC) 2007
Take That
Beautiful World Live (Universal) 2008
Kisha
A nyár (EMI) 2009
Carl Barat
Carl Barat (PIAS / Arcady) 2010
Paloma Faith
Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful (Sony) 2009
Kaja Draksler
Akropola (Goga) 2007
Türkü (DruGod) 2009
Noisettes
When We Were Young (BBC) 2008
Tony Christie
Made In Sheffield 2008
Gary Barlow
Brittania High Soundtrack (polydor) 2008
All Angels
All Angels(Universal) 2006
Photos
Bio
Una and the Balkan Bears is a collaboration of Irish artist and Shakira's solo violinist Una Palliser with some of Eastern Europe’s most virtuosic musicians.
Una graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London with 1st Class Hons, but has spent the last few years touring/recording with Moby, Gnarls Barkley, Take That, Bueno Vista Social Club and Maxim Vengerov. She spent the last year as featured solo violinist with Shakira on Sale El Sol World Tour. Her version of Irish folk song ‘Mo Ghile Mear’ is being used on the Specsavers advert, and her passion for Balkan music led her to Slovenia where she has had a number 1 radio hit as guest with band Terrafolk.
Una began her collaboration with ‘The Balkan Bears’ in 2010, made up of Eastern Europe’s most highly esteemed musicians. Extraodinary multi instrumentalist Bostjan plays clarinet, the musical saw, bodhran, ocarina and whistles, has performed with the Dubliners and won critical acclaim for his starring role in theatre shows including Patty Diphusa. He has been touring and performing internationally with accordion player and prolific composer Janez Dovc for the last few years. Bostjan and Janez were both members of slovenian band Terrafolk, winner of BBC World Music Award. Fourth member of the band is jazz tuba player, Goran Krmac, graduated on Prins Claus Conservatorium in Groningen, the Netherlands.
Together they have toured the UK and Ireland and performed on RTE Radio 1 and at Ronnie Scotts in London to great acclaim.
Terrafolk references:
1. Awards
Best Act of the Folkwoods festival 2005 (Holland)
Tap Water Awards 2004 (Scotland)
BBC Radio World Music Audience Award 2003 (International)
Spirit of the Fringe 2002 (Scotland)
Boomerang 2002 (Slovenia)
The Sun Fallon Award 2001,2002,2003
2. Discography
Stereo Folk Live (2001) Musicnet
Pulover ljubezni, Jumper of Love (2002) Musicnet
N'taka (2004) Musicnet/Menart
Live at Queen's Hall(2006) Musicnet/Menart
Full Circle(2008)Musicnet/Menart
3. Performed on stage/recorded(audio,video) with:
Midnight Sun Trio (Norway)
Susanne Lundeng - violin (Norway)
Arvid Engegård – violin (Norway)
Knut E. Sundquist - double bass (Norway)
Neil Innes - song writer and performer in Monty Pyton, The Rutles, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band… (UK)
Tommy Emanuel - fingerpicking guitar (Australia)
The Cat Empire (Australia)
The Symphony Orchestra of Radio and Television Slovenia, conducted by David de Villiers (South Africa)
Anja Bukovec - violin (Slovenia)
The World Famous pyrotechnicians (UK) and many others…
4. Some important venues and festivals where Terrafolk have performed:
Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru-Wales Millennium Centre,Cardiff, UK
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Shepherds Bush Empire, London
The Aldeburgh Proms, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape Suffolk, UK
Križanke, Ljubljana
The Famous Spiegeltent, Edinburgh Fringe
The Gilded Baloon, Edinburgh Fringe
Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana
Vatroslav Lisinski, Zagreb
Festivals:
Shetland Folk Festival 2007(Scotland) Glastonbury festival
Lent festival (Slovenia)
Druga godba festival (Slovenia)
EBU Folk Music Festival (Germany 2002, Sweden 2006)
Folkwoods festival (Holland)
Ortiguera festival (Spain)
Musicport World Music Festival, Whitby, UK
Big in Falkirk Festival with Full Circle
clubs (Borderline, Ocean, 100 Club - London; Brotfabrik - Frankfurt,…)
4.Countries where Terrafolk played
Austria, Bosnia, Croati, England, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Wales.
Links
