Urban Balkan series: Rundek Cargo Trio (CR/FR)

DARKO RUNDEK - vocal, guitar, percussions
ISABEL - violin, sound effects
DUSAN VRANIC - piano, accordion, zither, vocal, persussion

The Croatian Darko Rundek is a man of theater as much as a man of music. In Yugoslavia during the 80's, he was the leader of a very popular new wave band called Haustor. In exile in Paris during the war, he founded the Cargo Orkestar, an ensemble of musicians from Croatia, Bosnia, Switzerland and France. The project initially stemmed from Darko Rundek’s songs which are intrinsically poetic and rich in images. They also incorporate a musical tradition with a potential for accepting diverse influences, first the Balkans, Central Europe and the Mediterranean, then reggae, South American, eastern, electronic, African… The melting-pot of musicians with very different backgrounds, with their own strong individuality and respective skills, has enabled an expansion and deepening of this potential towards a musically open blend, a cross-cultural Corto-Maltesian journey, with flexibility and freedom for instant creative expression, improvisation, play and fun. Highly influential world music label Piranha Records has published two albums by Darko Rundek & Cargo Orkestar: “Ruke” (2004) and “Mhm A-Ha Oh Yeah Da-Da” (2006). They performed in Portugal, France, UK, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, Austria, Italia and ex-Yugoslavian countries. For the concerts, Cargo mixes new and old from the rich repertoire of Rundek songs, always retaining a spirit of improvisation and joyful musicianship. Their shows take us to the trip through the variety of atmospheres and sounds in truly unique way. Unlike Cargo Orchestra which uses songs of Darko Rundek as motifs for multi-level baroque musical and scenic plays, Cargo Trio uses its poetry, opening space for emotion, suggestion, transparence, presence... and of course, to musicality in its purified shape.