Iag Bari by Fanfare Ciocárlia
 

This is a thread for anyone who´d like to comment on or ask about this album, which recently won a FAIR album club poll :-

Does anyone have any information, opinions or questions about this album, or the band that made it ? If so, don´t go keeping it to yourself - post away !

I must admit I spotted this one a while ago in the iTunes store and I thought - my god an entire album of brass ensemble what could me more torturous? Well turns out my anti-brass bias was rather unfair and unfounded in this case at least. I loved this album. Fanfare Ciocărlia are a twelve piece Romanian brass ensemble (Ciocărlia being Romanian for skylarking apparently) formed around 1996. Iag Bari is just so damn joyful I couldn't help smiling and bobbing along. One track even features the Bulgarian Womens Choir from the Huun Huur Tu album Fly Fly My Sadness. I don't know if there's much insight I can offer but give it a listen if you haven't already. I'm giving it an excellent.

Glad to hear that you overcame an initial reluctance and started to enjoy this album. I´m also not an enthusiast of cheerful brass band music. In fact I´ve been waiting to be in the mood for this album, but it still hasn´t happened, tbh.

I did dip into a couple of tracks, and that felt like that was enough for the moment. Doesn´t seem fair to vote on the album on the basis of such a brief acquaintance, so I´m going to hold off until I am ready to enjoy this apparently infectious music.