Music Performance,
(if applicable)
- Genre EME -- Central-Eastern Europe & Balkan - MUSIC
- URL
- Biography The word "Kef" refers to that spirit and energy shared by a group of people in celebration. It is a state of being, an intangible quality approaching ecstasy, often engendered by musical experience. Kef is a Turkish concept and term that has become naturalized across the Balkans throughout the former domain of the Ottoman Empire. That same cultural force left an indelible mark on the music of Balkans. Today, Slavs, Roma and a multitude of other ethnic groups – even Americans – play and dance to music that is an amalgam of Turkish influences and indigenous regional styles. Kef, the band, has been performing for dancers and listeners, weddings and exhibitions, dance halls and crowded eateries, festivals and outdoor markets, since 2007. Its music is a sampling of the regional genres found across the Balkans, from Bulgarian wedding music to Serbian brass band, and from 1960s radio-style orchestrations to melody/drone-based village music, all interpreted through the lens of their unique instrumentation.
