Balkan Alien Sound

foyle-folk-festival Balkan Alien Sound founded in 2007 after Bouzouki player Martin Coyle returned to Ireland from his travels and studies of Eastern European and Balkan music and culture. With a vast interest in the folk and gypsy music of the Balkan regions and Klezmer music he approached a group of his close musician friends to form what is now Balkan Alien Sound. The seven piece ensemble ranges from Irish traditional players, Blues and Jazz musicians and Classical and Folk players.With this melting pot of backgrounds Balkan Alien Sound provide their own fresh take on the music of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey along with various other gypsy stylings and improvisation. The instrumentation of the group is mostly string based with Bouzouki, Violin, Bass/Contra Bass and Guitar, but also has Accordion, Whistles, Percussion and regional Vocals from various Balkan countries. The music that comes from this is often fast and furious demanding to be danced to verging on ska with odd time signatures and rhythms often ending in riotous crowd participation. However they also approach the slower folk songs of Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia which vocalist Aideen McGinn tackles with precision and subtlty. Over the last year in particular the bands popularity has grown both in Ireland, the U.K and Europe and they have played numerous festivals such as:

DERRY JAZZ FESTIVAL – DERRY
LIFE FESTIVAL – GALWAY
TRANS FESTIVAL – BELFAST
GASYARD FEILE – DOIRE
DERRY FOLK FEILE – DOIRE
GLASGOWBURY FESTIVAL – IRELAND
RED LINE ROOTS FESTIVAL – DUBLIN
SACRED TRINITY CHURCH – MANCHESTER
EURO-CULTURE FESTIVAL – DUBLIN/MANCHESTER
BOMBETA FOLK FESTIVAL – BARCELONA
GLASTONBURY MUSIC FESTIVAL U.K 2010 – HAVE JUST RETURNED FROM 3 SUCCESSFUL GIGS AT THIS YEARS GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL

The group hold down residency spots in bars in Derry and Donegal, Ireland and regularly invite bands from other countries to come to stay and play in Ireland along with them – most recently The Underscore Orkestra, U.S.A. and Txutxukan, France. As well as this they work closely with the Derry and Donegal Arts Councils providing music for outdoor events such as STREET THEATRE GROUPS and CIRCUS.

The band line-up is:
Martin Coyle: Bouzouki, Whistles
Robert Peoples: Violin
Steven Carlin: Accordion
Aideen Mc Ginn: Vocals
Gary Cunningham: Guitar
Marc Forbes: Contra Bass/Electric Bass
Mark O’Doherty: Drums/Percussion

MySpace:
www.myspace.com/balkanaliensound
Balkan Alien Sound on Fabrika Festival