They know about real pain and real joy. When they dance, it is to elevate their spirits and leave their cares behind. Underneath the exuberance, there is the breath of sorrow that is their constant companion, but they are going to do their best to escape it, even if it is only for the moment. Let the music slow, just temporarily, and you can hear pain echoing in the sound of the clarinet or the loneliness of a violin.
On one of their songs on this disc, "Suita Maskarada", "Masquerade Suite", the mournful tin whistle that plays through the opening is perhaps the most revealing instrument of the whole recording. It's hard not to hear it and not think of the trials that the Roma people have undergone in the last century alone.
So, if there is a little swagger to the sound of the violins when they attack the Romanian Dance half of Bartok's "Ostinato & Romanian Dance" on the opening track of the disc, can you blame them? After more then a hundred years, the masquerade is finally over and they get to pull the off the masks disguising their music.
Some of the music will sound different from what you've come to expect from a Taraf De Haidouks recording. That's not surprising as it was written in a style different from what they normally play. But that doesn't stop them from making these songs sound as much their own as the music they have written themselves. Maskarada is a wild, tempestuous, musical ride that will leave you breathless by the end; pretty much normal for Taraf De Haidouks.
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