It’s hard not to want to celebrate a wedding in the Bulgarian countryside while listening to the music of the trio Samir Kurtov. It’s all there, the melancholy of a fraying life, the rhythm of hearts beating too hard and the intoxication of a wrecked party. And if the zurnas of Samir Kurtov and Demcho lliev evoke the temptation of a certain timeless orientalism, the davul of their comrade Martin Dimitrov strikes the rhythm of a dance ritual celebrating time, past, present and everything that’s yet to come.
Text: Laurence Wagner