TEAM RNS PRESENTS

TITLE: Trans Balkan Express

LABEL: essay recordings

RIPPER: TEAM RNS

198kbps avg - Electronic
0hr 45min total- 67.2mb

RELEASE DATE: 2004-06-01
RIP DATE: 2004-07-09

01 Trans Balkan Express           4:00

06 Munteanul 2000                 3:35

08 Sirtaki On Mars                5:40

10 Magic Mamaliga                 2:10

14 Space Hora Dub                 3:24

Ladies and gentlemen: All on board the
Trans Balkan Express!
Make sure you are seated, youll enjoy a

While Kraftwerk was chugging on their
train through pre
1989 Europe, O.M.F.O. travels from the
West to the East, from
Amsterdam via Berlin to the hinterlands
of the EU, the Karpates,
the Black Sea right into the front
garden of Asia. While crashing
frontiers, bridging gaps, building
connections, he carrys in his
luggage Jamaican dub techniques and
electronic equipment, with
which O.M.F.O. elegantly blends the
musical spice of the South
Eastern European provinces with the club
culture of the West.

Our Man From Odessa (O.M.F.O.) is a border

Raised in the harbor town of Odessa
(Ukraine), German Popov
first studied radio communication. In
1989 he emigrated to
Amsterdam to intensify his musical
formation. At first he engaged
himself in various musical projects.
Popov is an ardent collector of
traditional music instruments from
different parts of the world,
especially from former Soviet republics
and their sattelite states,
and knows how to play them all.
Moreover he is a highly skilled
overtone singer. Consequently, he was
invited to play and sing
with many bands and musicians around
the Amsterdam circuit.
1994 German released on Oreade Music his
first album "Isiric".
Shortly after he started Sputnik, a
band solely consisitng of Russian
emigrants, for which he wrote music,
earning a few guilders.

In the meantime, German Popov was
travelling the world as a DJ
and worked as a furniture salesman, a
model, a travel guide and
built instruments. As O.M.F.O. he
released various 12" and 7" singles
on Kidnap records, but most of all on
his Solaris-Project which had
an exotic, electronic Easy Listening
sound. Later he joined the world
famous female throat singer Sainkho from
Southern Sibiria, with which
he collaborated on various albums, as
well as a instrumentalist on tour.

And now German Popov presents with
"Trans Balkan Express"
fourteen new tracks in a intercultural
transition modus on Berlin's
Essay Recordings. The album features
music between the "East"
and the "West", between space and a
Balkan wedding, speeded
up by electronic sound engineering, cooled
by a relaxed versatility,
happily ignoring musical boundaries of
any kind. "Trans Balkan Express"
is where modernism dances with
traditions, the "old" Europe flows
into the "new". On the beautiful Trans
Balkan trip, Popov, who only
wears custom-made-suits, exposes many
of his talents and passions:
Laptop producing, dub reggae, flutes and
stringinstruments from his
exotic collection, as well as his
affinity for kosmonautic lyricism and
psycho active Absinth.

Lets all get on board and marvel, which
exciting new sounds,
revolutionary musical combinations
there are to explore between
the occident and the tundra. And let
O.M.F.O. be our guide.