Albanian folk songs and dances performed in Brussels

TIRANA, May 7 – Three ensembles of folk songs and dances represented Albania in the eighth edition of the Balkan Trafik Festival in Brussels bringing the best of the Balkans in five days.
Albanian participated in the festival with the National Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances, the Vatra group and the Jonianet & Saze.
The Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances of Albania, one of the oldest national performing groups still active today, is made up of a number of soloists, groups, and musicians. “Albania has a rich cultural heritage that is characterised by great diversity: each region has its own distinctive costume, music, dances, and rituals. In its colourful, authentic costumes, this ensemble celebrates the cultural traditions of the Albanian people with original music and superb dancing by outstanding artists,” say the festival’s organizers.
Grupi Vatra is a group of young Brussels’s dancers that take one further into the Balkans music through the colours of the Albanian folk dance.
Meanwhile, the Jonianet Albanian vocal ensemble performs a kind of traditional iso-polyphony that is characteristic of the south-west of their country. The group aims to keep alive the emotional and spiritual wealth of this art form and to communicate it as a record of an age-old culture. Their repertoire includes epic-historical songs, love songs, and folk music with lyrics by contemporary local poets. For this eagerly-awaited performance, they were joined by Saze, an ensemble that specialises in instrumental, traditional wedding music from the Greek-Albanian border region
The festival also featured a workshop on iso-polyphony which was an introduction to Albanian traditional music with the ensemble Jonianet. UNESCO has recognised this folk tradition as part of humanity’s heritage.
“The iso-polyphonic tradition lives on in southern Albania today. You can hear this part-singing while the inhabitants of this mountainous region are working or taking part in family gatherings and a wide range of special occasions.”
For the last seven years 1001 Valises and BOZAR have jointly organised the Balkan Trafik Festival, which turns the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels into a real festival hall, welcoming over 7,000 loyal visitors every year. The emphasis is always on music: major international artists perform alongside ‘living legends’ from the Balkan region. There is also Roma music, militant rock, soul wrenching jazzy melodies, traditional and electronic music, as well as films and theater, workshops and debates, wine and gastronomy. Each year, more than 200 artists play on the festival’s different stages, coming from Romania, Serbia, Bosnia, Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Greece, Albania, Moldavia, Slovenia but also France, the Netherlands and Belgium. The programme covers all the music genres, including local traditions, contemporary brass bands and rock and jazz.