Baltic Balkan

Baltic Balkan

Baltic Balkan is a Vilnius-based group that forms around Balkan, klezmer, electronic and swing influences, with a Lithuanian club and festival context. The project begins in 2008 on the Baltic club scene and is presented as a musical and performance act shaped by the cultural mix of Vilnius, as well as by listening to Yugoslav punk rock, European festivals and films with a Balkan and Baltic spirit.

Line-up and identity

The group appears as three men and a dog. The front man is Lencas, who is also a former singer in the local cult ska band TAI KĄ. The sound makers are Namas and Marulis, both known as Lithuanian graphic designers. The dog, Pitchka, is treated as an iconic part of the project’s identity and appears in the group’s imagery and party culture.

Performance history

Baltic Balkan plays clubs and concert halls in major Baltic cities and also appears at festivals. The group runs three party series: “Baltic Balkan Bang”, “Caravan” and “Balkanaktis”. It also performs alongside acts such as OPA!, Inculto, DJ Click, Gypsy Sound System, DJ AK, Janeck Altshuler, Belaj Kru Sound, Gaetano Fabri, Funklore, Warsaw Balkan Madness, Dj Pontell, ZhamoZha and SuperStereo.

The act performs in cities including Riga, Tallinn, Wiesbaden, Nurnberg, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Paris, Fribourg and Geneve. It is also invited to open the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow and Nuit Blanche Festival in Amiens, and it appears at Volt 2011 alongside Mahalai Rai Banda, Parno Graszt and The No Smoking Orchestra.

Release

The group’s debut release is Katapulta EP, released on Maasto Records in Finland. It is a collaboration between Baltic Balkan and the minimal post-brass group Banda Dzeta. The title track tells a romantic story about a magical catapult, and the EP includes five remixes by Canalh, Ckrono and Boyfriend, DJ Tito, and DJ SuperStereo.