I have to admit that anytime I see the words Romanian and gypsy together I'm irresistibly attracted. Part of that stems from being a descendant of the other outcasts of Romanian society -- Jews -- and the other part is that the music taps into some wellspring of untapped emotion inside of me.

Okay maybe this is the one place that sentimental romanticism rules for me, as I hold on to some fake image of fierce independence and the indomitable will to survive that has been perpetuated about gypsies by so many millions of bad movies and stereotypes. But how can anyone listen to that music and not feel stirred? The violin plays an extended note overtop a raspy voice that hoarsely proclaims a string of passionate words, while underneath the cimbalom is playing patterns of notes that only slightly falls short of the vocals for intensity.

An almost infinitesimal pause is followed by an explosion of sound as the strange mixture of brass, woodwind, strings and percussion takes flight. While the songs themselves could be about anything, within each one you can hear the echoes of the gypsies long migration that started in Northern India and as far west as Ireland. With the opening of the world and the always-present hostility of Europe towards gypsies and everyday reality they crossed the ocean in their quest for peace.

I've never heard why the original migration from India began. After all, elements of the tribe continue to live there following the ways of their ancestors. But leave they did and as they traveled they left behind communities in every territory they crossed through.

If possible, these communities were even more isolationist then the Jewish ones existing alongside of them. Like the Jews, they discovered that refusing to mix with society was responsible for the generations of myths concerning their behavior, as humankind's fear of the unknown is always fertile breeding ground for hatred and rumor.

In spite of the animosity that existed toward them in Eastern and Western Europe, and the attempts of Hitler's Nazi party to exterminate them as part of their campaign for racial purity, their communities continued to survive and make glorious music. Even under the iron rule of Nicolae Ceausescu, party secretary of the Communist Party and leader, the music flourished internationally and at home.

One of the leading lights of gypsy music in Romania at this time was cimbalom, or ţambal, player Toni Iordache. He was born in 1942 just outside Bucharest and at the age of four had already begun learning to play the instrument of his choice. A few years later his family moved into Bucharest where his neighbors numbered some of the biggest names of gypsy music in post World War Two Europe.

To most of us, these names probably mean nothing at all. Thankfully Asphalt Tango Records in Germany has been given permission to dig into the archives of Romanian state radio and has unearthed tapes of many of these greats and been releasing these recordings under the name Sounds From A Bygone Age. Volume #4 gathers close to an hour of old recordings of Toni Iordache playing with a wide variety of his contemporaries and gives us ample opportunity to hear his incredible versatility.