listen to harry tavitian

veche baladă din balcani (old balkan rhapsody)


ţăndărică


marşu' miresei (bridal march)


la porţile levantului (at the gates of levant)

romanian jazz

romania gave to the world some first class jazz musicians, that i strongly recommend. i will only name here a few of them. it's up to you to search for them further. i won't mention their collaborations outside romania, being too many and each important :D again, this is not a full list

the legends

*richard oschanitzky (b. 1939, timişoara / d. 1979, bucharest) - pianist, composer and conductor; renowned name of the bop, cool, free jazz and symphonic jazz styles of jazz music. the international jazz festival of iaşi holds his name

*johnny răducanu (b. 1931, brăila) - pianist, founder of the romanian jazz school, mr. jazz of romania; many times has stated taht he's proud of his roma ethnicity and of his family's musical tradition, that dates back to the 17th century

*harry tavitian (b. 1952, constanţa) - pianist; member of the romanian band orient express, as well of the multinational band the black sea orchestra; much of his music is influenced by the balkanic folklore; he's of armenian ethnicity

*aura urziceanu (b. 1946) - vocalist; at the end of the '60s she was already recognized in europe and in the us as a very talented jazz vocalist (next week in iasi, at the jazz festival)

*anca parghel (b. 1957, cîmpulung moldovenesc) - vocalist; well-known from the '80s; resides in belgium

known before 1990 (the fall of the communism)

*radu goldiş (b. 1947, bucharest) - guitarist; resides in the united states

*eugen gondi (b. timişoara, 1947) - drummer; former member of paul weiner free jazz trio, transylvania phoenix, ceata melopoică; currently living in the netherlands

the new wave

*pedro negrescu (b. 1969, tecuci) - plays mainly the double-bass, but also the trumpet, the cello and the piano; has his own band, soft triangle

*sorin romanescu (b. 1968) - bassist and guitarist; former member of the newcomers, sarmalele reci, 7th heaven, aievea, east village

*mihai iordache (b. 1967, bucharest) - plays the saxophone; former member in the bands orient express, sarmalele reci and rebop factory. now he's a member of the acclaimed romanian band kumm (i've seen him live and i loved what he's done with the sax)

*eddie neumann (b. 1974, tulcea) - plays the saxophone; former member of jazz unit, orient express and blazzaj; now resides in the uk

*lucian ban (b. cluj) - considered one of the best jazz pianists in europe

*vlaicu golcea - bass guitar; member of shukar collective and east village; he also started some other projects, like rebop factory, nobo and jazz unit

*cristian soleanu - saxophone player

*vlad popescu (b. 1977, bucharest) - drummer, member of joy of life (you can see the band next week in iaşi, at the jazz festival)

jazz festival in iasi

the 10th edition of the richard oschanitzky international jazz festival, 9 to 11 may, iasi, romania, at casa de cultura a studentilor (sala gaudeamus), each day starting 5 pm.

last year i've been only on the last day of the festival, missing a band i wanted to see, trigon, of moldova. i've seen only daniel givone trio of france and a german fusion band, boxer. they sounded pretty good.

these are the guests of this edition:

*friday
- trio marius popp featuring giocoso string quartet (romania);

*saturday
- ion baciu jr quintet ( memebers from romania / sweden / austria);
- jean pierre como trio (france);

*sunday
- joy of live quartet (romania);
- aura urziceanu (romania).

the japanese class

himawari, a japanese-romanian association, organized on may 19, 2007, an event dedicated to the japanese culture, at 'casa de cultura mihai ursachi', in copou (iasi), called ora de japoneza (the japanese class).

we've been shown some clips, explained many things about japanese and japan (even people from the embassy were there), we've seen romanian girls dressed in yukata (a kind of kimono, for the summer period) dancing on japanese traditional music, and at the end, the best moment of the afternoon: a very beautiful and very talented japanese girl sung the wadaiko, a traditional japanese drum, interpolating the beats with some shouts that sounded like war callings. it was really impressive.

it's almost a year since that day. reading an article about taiko, i recalled the japanese drummer. too bad they didn't put her name on the poster or on the website of the event. anyhow, i found some pictures on the internet from that performance:

my history studies

i am studying history at uaic, in northeast romania. that's the only romanian university in the coimbra group (that gathers the best european universities). iasi, the city, was the capital of moldova for a few hundred years. now, the historical territory of moldova is divided between romania, ukraine and the moldovan republic.

at the faculty of history, i am preparing a bachelor degree thesis named the galician voivodeship and the territories between the carpathian mountains and dniester river in the 12th - 13th centuries, under the coordination of prof. dr. victor spinei, a reputed romanian historian, specialist on early medieval history in the eastern europe.

i will be digging on two archaeological sites, in dobrudja, all the month of july '08. in the first half of the month, at isaccea, the old noviodunum, and in the second part at slava rusa, the old ibida.

then i'll leave romania for a few months. i will study a semester, october '08 to february '09, at the university of wroclaw, in poland, thanks to an erasmus-socrates scholarship.

vasile hutopila's paintings

yeah, my dad is an artist. he's an impressionist painter. i selected four of his paintings to put on my blog:

autumn in bucovina (1993)


winter (2000)


winter in bucovina (2000)


adam and eve (2000)

you can find here more things about his works and activity.

rock'n'iasi open air festival '08

24-25 may, in iasi, at lake ciric, a new edition of rock'n'iasi open air. i've missed it last year, but i'm planning to book it next month. special guests will be korpiklaani (finland), negura bunget (romania), god (portugal, band originally formed in iasi). more information here.

that's me last year at rock'n'iasi indoor:

with janne perttilä of moonsorrow (finland)

with masha of arkona (russia)

calabria '07

i visited calabria (southern italy) last summer in the months of july and august. it's been a very nice experience. a hot summer, burning forests, burning sand, the turquoise of the thyrrenian sea, lake ampollino, stromboli seen from far away. i met nice and happy people, very beautiful girls and i've seen live enzo avitabile e i bottari, excellent group. it was a pleasant coincidence, since they came to concert exactly in the small town where i stayed that months (rogliano, cs).

here are some photos i made in calabria:

apple tree in balzata (cosenza province)


rocks at coréca


the dome of rogliano (cs)

i'll put photos and videos from the enzo avitabile e i bottari concert in another article

fully streamable albums on last fm

i've found some very nice albums you can fully stream on last fm. follow these links:

* travka - vreau sa simt praga (romanians. really good album. alternative)

* travka - corabia nebunilor

* maria peszek - miastomania (polish)

* perkalaba - horrry! (ukrainian. reggae influenced ska)

* joan as police woman - real life (well, no introduction needed)

travka and perkalaba have free to download mp3s

(non)heroes

a hero of our times, mikhail lermontov's novel, had quite an impact on me. i was about 16 when i first read it. pechyorin, the main character still is a model for me.

a few months ago, i was skinning over a list of books translated to romanian, when i've seen a title that hold my attention: underground or a hero of our times, by vladimir makanin. i was purely curious, so i took it from the library. it was a special experience. a solid, hard, heavy novel, by quality, by what it arouses inside of you. a thrilling reading.

mix this with sunt un erou (i am a hero) song of romanian alternative band travka and enjoy!

izvory, hutsul village

izvory (in romanian izvoarele sucevei) is the bucovinan village where my dad was born and where i spent my first years.

it appeared when hutsul settlers came from pokuttya in the 17th century. at the time, it was part of the principality of moldavia. from 1774 to 1918, bucovina was included in the austrian empire, as a duchy.

january 7th, 2008, the christmas day

december 1918 to june 1919, izvory was the southernmost location of the unrecognized hutsul republic. the romanian army took care of ' setting free' izvory and other hutsul villages. the hutsul republic was divided between romania, poland and czechoslovakia. the biggest part of the former hutsul republic lies now between the borders of ukraine, while its south is in romania, in the counties of suceava and maramures.

people still speak the hutsul dialect and study in school the ukrainian language (though not enough). the religious ceremonies are held in ukrainian. the hutsuls of izvory follow the julian calendar (old style eastern orthodoxy)

eastern european ethno-rock

after ruslana won the eurovision song contest in 2004, many bands chose to approach a more ethnic influenced style. these bands ended up singing ska punk, gypsy punk, folk rock and even folk metal.

of course, some bands were influenced by traditions years before ruslana, but that moment put the ethno-rock in the spotlight.

hutsuls, who were totally ignored before, became a symbol of continuity and freedom. in both ukraine and romania, where they live, tv channels, radio stations and the press started to be interested in them, creating a picturesque image of hutsuls.

now i'll mention some bands that i like (click on their name to visit their last fm page):
* perkalaba (ukraine) - named after a small hutsul village just 20 km away from my village :D ; ska with hutsul and even reggae influences;
* haydamaky (ukraine) - that, in ukrainian, means the outlaws; they have a moldovan trumpeter; ska with moldovan and gypsy influences;
* zdob si zdub (moldova) - the best ethno-rock band, from my point of view; even if they recently started to sound way too commercial, they still have
those first outstanding albums;
* leningrad (russia) - they were good from the very start; the same sound, the same attitude from the beginning, and surely one of the best ska bands in the world.

some well known bands outside eastern europe are formed by immigrants from the ex-communist block. i'll write on them in another article. they include gogol bordello, kultur shock, dolomites, devotchka, romashka, reverend glasseye...

baltic writers

i discovered how good baltics can write while i was in high-school. i still consider some of their novels among my best readings till now. it's about these five writings:
* visvaldis lāms (latvian) - trase / the range;
* zigmunds skujiņš (latvian) - memuary molodogo cheloveka / memoirs of a young man;
* enn vetemaa (estonian) - pillimees; the monument and requiem for the harmonica

i've also read some of paul kuusberg's short stories, and i liked a few, but it seemed glorifying the regime a little too much.

recently, i've read the howling miller, by finnish author arto paasilinna and it proved itself a reassuring reading after a few 'heavy' novels.

another fine baltic writer you shouldn't miss is mykolas sluckis (lithuanian)

me on the web

you can also find me elsewhere on the web.

so, here are the links to:
- my bookmarks;
- my last fm page;
- my hermeneia page [there you'll find some of my writings, in romanian];
- me on googlepages [again, writings in romanian];
- another googlepages site, this time in ukrainian [list of materials regarding medieval history of ukraine];
- my profile on hi5...

not all, but the most eloquent

to blog or not to blog...

well, why not to?

i am matei hutopila, 1987 born, studying medieval history at uaic, a coimbra group university in iasi, northeast romania.

hutsul by father, moldovan by mother. that makes me half romanian and half ukrainian; by blood.
by culture, i like to consider myself an easterner. most of the music, literature, art that i like comes from eastern europe (more precisely, i refer to the ex-communist block).

on this web log i intend to make some recommendations in matter of films, books, music, art, websites, but also tell you a bit of what am i doing, when anything more or less interesting comes...

enjoy!