| Asphalt Tango Records | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 |
| Distributor(s) | List distributors |
| Genre | World music |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Location | Berlin |
| Official Website | Official Web site |
Asphalt Tango Records is a Berlin-based record label specialising in Balkan Gypsy music and East European rock, psych-folk, cabaret and electronic music.
Asphalt Tango Production was formed by Henry Ernst and Helmut Neumann in 1997. The two men became friends in the 1980s in the city of Leipzig where both were working a variety of odd jobs (Ernst as waiter and nurse, Neumann as shoemaker for disabled persons, night receptionist). In 1989 both attended the Monday Protests in Leipzig. Upon the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany Ernst and Neumann shifted to Berlin.
In 1996 Ernst was travelling in Moldavia, north-eastern Romania. Upon arriving in the tiny Gypsy village of Zece Prajini Ernst learned that a highly distinctive regional brass band tradition still existed there. Impressed by the talent he heard and certain a wider public would enjoy hearing a Romanian Gypsy brass band, Ernst returned to Germany and set about booking a tour.
Ernst managed to book twenty dates for the musicians now called Fanfare Ciocărlia in Germany and France spread across 45 days in March–April, 1997. Ernst, realising the work was too much for one person, invited Neumann to help. Initially, Asphalt Tango existed solely as management and booking agents for Fanfare Ciocarlia.
By 2002 the three Fanfare Ciocarlia albums released on Berlin's record label Piranha were amongst the most popular albums that label had ever handled, the combined sales proved to Ernst and Neumann that they could operate Asphalt Tango as an independent label. They released their first album Ma Maren Ma by the Bulgarian Gypsy singer Jony Iliev (produced by Ernst and Neumann), in November, 2002.
Asphalt Tango Records licensed its next two CD releases. The first album was Hungarian Gypsy band Besh o DroM's Can't Make Me. The next album was Serbian Gypsy band Earth Wind Sky Band's Waltz Rromano. Asphalt Tango's next release was the Fanfare Ciocarlia DVD The Story Of The Band. This DVD incorporated live concert footage, the Ralf Marschalleck film Iag Bari - Brass On Fire (which follows Fanfare Cicoarlia on tour from Zece Prajini to Tokyo). Songlines Magazine, reviewing The Story Of The Band, wrote that it "set a new standard for world music DVDs."
Asphalt Tango's next release was the international debut album from Polish accordion band Motion Trio Pictures From The Street. In March 2005 Asphalt Tango released the fourth Fanfare Ciocarlia album Gili Garabdi.
In November 2005 Asphalt Tango Records released the first in a series of CD reissues of Romanian Gypsy music from the Nicolae Ceauşescu era. Sounds From A Bygone Age Vol.1 Ion Petre Stoican featured an album from the mid-1970s of the now-deceased Romanian fiddler Stoican backed by some of Bucharest's lautari (professional musician caste, Gypsy musicians). Asphalt Tango would go on to issue "Sounds From A Bygone Age" albums by Romica Puceanu, Dona Dumitru Siminica, Toni Iordache and Gabi Luncă.
Fanfare Ciocarlia had participated in the 2002 US Gypsy Caravan tour (chronicled in Jasmine Dellal's 2007 film When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan). This inspired Ernst and Neumann to try to recreate something similar for Europe. They recorded a Fanfare Ciocarlia album called Queens & Kings that featured guest singers from different European Gypsy communities.
To preview the album Fanfare Ciocarlia headlined a concert in Bucharest, Romania, in December 2006. They were joined on stage by Esma Redžepova, Jony Iliev, Kaloome, Mitsou and Florentina Sandu. The Queens & Kings project toured Europe and Australia.
In 2009 Asphalt Tango remodelled Queens & Kings with Romania's Mahala Rai Banda. A Mahala Rai Banda album, Ghetto Blasters, produced by Ernst and Neumann, was released on Asphalt Tango in late-2009 to coincide with the new Queens & Kings line-up touring Europe.
Asphalt Tango continue to release new music from Eastern Europe. In February 2006 they released the eponymous album from Serbian Gypsy roots rock band Kal. In October 2007 they released Voice Letter by ErsatzMusika, a Berlin-based band made up of former Soviet Bloc musicians who mix rock, Russian folk, poetry and the conceptual art ideas of band leader Irina Doubrovskaja. In October 2008 they released Fake No More, the debut album by La Cherga, a Graz-based electronic band with ska and dub influences made up of former Yugoslav musicians. In October 2008 they released Bucharest Tango by Oana Catalina Chitu, a Berlin-based Romanian singer who specializes in recreating the tango as played in Bucharest in the 1930s. In April 2009 Asphalt Tango released Kal's second album Radio Romanista and ErsatzMusika's second album Songs Unrecantable. In November 2009 they released Kottarashky's debut album Opa Hey! This is an album of electronic music with samples from folk and Gypsy recordings by Bulgarian DJ/producer Nikola Gruev.
Princes Amongst Men: Journeys With Gypsy Musicians (Serpents Tail) is a 2005 book written by the London-based journalist Garth Cartwright that follows his travels through four Balkan states (Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria) in search of the region's foremost Gypsy musicians. In 2008 Princes Amongst Men was issued in German as Balkanblues und Blaskapellen (Hannibal Verlag). To coincide with the German edition Asphalt Tango issued a Princes Amongst Men CD compilation that gathered most of the musicians discussed in Cartwright's book. Princes Amongst Men is Asphalt Tango's first compilation.
CD-ATR 0102 Jony Iliev "Ma maren ma" / Release date 15.11.2002
CD-ATR 0203 Besh O Drom "Can't make me!" / Release date 24.01.2003
CD-ATR 0303 Earth Wheel Sky Band "Waltz Rromano" / Release date 03.10.2003
DVD-ATR 0404 Fanfare Ciocărlia "Gypsy brass legends – the Story of the band" / Release date 25.10.2004
CD-ATR 0504 Motion Trio "Pictures from the street" / Release date 25.10.2004
CD-ATR 0605 Fanfare Ciocărlia "Gili Garabdi" / Release date 07.03.2005
CD-ATR 0705 Motion Trio "Play-Station" / Release date 10.10.2005
CD-ATR 0805 Sounds from a bygone age Vol.1 "Ion Petre Stoican" / Release date 01.11.2005
CD-ATR 0906 Kal "Kal" / Release date 10.02.2006 / debut
CD-ATR 1006 Sounds from a bygone age Vol.2 "Romica Puceanu" / Release date 24.02.2006
CD-ATR 1106 Sounds from a bygone age Vol.3 "Dona Dumitru Siminica" / Release date 29.09.2006
CD-ATR 1207 Fanfare Ciocărlia "Queens and Kings" / Release date 23.02.2007
CD-ATR 1307 Sounds from a bygone age Vol.4 "Toni Iordache" / Release date 27.04.2007
CD-ATR 1407 ErsatzMusika "Voice letter" / Release date 21.09.2007 / debut
CD-ATR 1508 Sounds from a bygone age Vol.5" Gabi Lunca" / Release date 04.04.2008
CD-ATR 1608 Various "Princes amongst men" / Release date 06.06.2008
CD-ATR 1708 La Cherga "Fake no more" / Release date 26.09.2008 / debut
CD-ATR 1808 Oana Catalina Chitu "Bucharest Tango" / Release date 26.09.2008 / debut
LP-ATR 1908 La Cherga "Fake no more" / Release date 26.09.2008
CD-ATR 2009 Kal "Radio Romanista" / Release date 30.01.2009
LP-ATR 2109 Kal "Radio Romanista" / Release date 30.01.2009 / limited edition, vinyl 180g
CD-ATR 2209 ErsatzMusika "Songs Unrecantable" / Release date 10.04.2009
CD-ATR 2309 Fanfare Ciocărlia "Live" / Release date 25.09.2009
LP-ATR 2409 Fanfare Ciocărlia "Best of Gypsy Brass" / Release date 25.09.2009
CD-ATR 2509 Mahala Rai Banda / "Ghetto Blasters" / Release date 16.10.2009
CD-ATR 2609 Kottarashky / "Opa Hey!" / Release date 13.11.2009 / debut
CD-ATR 2711 La Cherga "Revolve" / Release date 15. April 2011
LP-ATR 2811 La Cherga "Revolve" / Release date 15. April 2011 / Vinyl 180g
CD-ATR 2911 Fanfare Ciocarlia vs. Boban & Marko Markovic Orchestra "Balkan Brass Battle" / Release date 20. Mai 2011
CD-ATR 2911 Fanfare Ciocarlia vs. Boban & Marko Markovic Orchestra "Balkan Brass Battle" / Release date 20. Mai 2011 / Vinyl 180g