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Andrea Del Favero - Artistic Director of Folkest Festival and Folkbulletin magazine - Fanfara Tirana crossed my road in a quite peculiar moment of my life: when, after a sport accident I injuried my arm, and risked not to be able to hold my instrument any more. I was about to fall into a dark depressive state.
I had already heard about the band and read on the presentation note that their music could even make "the dead dance". That's why even with an arm hanging from my neck I went to check them out right before a concert. I observed them and listened to them carefully during the setting of the stage, and while they warmed up their fingers and tuned the band for the sound check.

Three bariton filicorns, three percussionists, a tuba, saxophones, trumpets and clarinets running one after the other in parossistic crescendos and above all the extraordinary voice of Hysni (Niko) Zela, a new expression in the fanfara style. The whole scene left me astonished: Blossoming in front of me is a beautiful new musical creation. A real and contemporary sound, not just a tune of the moment. Deep roots digging into the solid grounds of tradition and style for greatly innovative tones. Thanks to this band the musical and cultural values of a whole country, that has been long abused by hystory and massacred by the media rise out to the light.

And now,ladies and gentlemen, the concert. A unique blasting impact, rumbling, with rolling of broken rythms, as those a balkanian band is expected of being caple of. Those 7/8 and 9/8 almost impossibile to read and "simple" kosovar and North Albanian 2/4 might be so associated to mideuropean polkas if only they weren't been bitten by a much more mediterranean tarantula. The cry of sadness of the clarinet's solo digs you into deep sadness, throws you among the dark waves of Adriatic Sea and the mountains of South Albania and tells you about the laments of lost loves. But as soon as the band blend together again you have the most beautiful and enjoyable brass band of the whole Balcanian peninsula in front of you. As you listen to this CD and you may ask yourself where has this band been all this time, how could we have done without them? This is one of the best groups in Europe nowadays, capable of moving elderly and thrilling young listeners. For a party where newspaper rolled cigarettes are smoked, where the wine is genuine and sour, where beer is flowing , legs are dancing to the rythm and the volume is loud, very loud

We can enjoy Fanfara Tirana on CD at last: please play this Cd at a bloody loud volume.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS
SONGLINES (ENGLAND) - Simon Broughton - It was Jonathan Walton who alerted me to Albania’s Fanfara Tirana when he was writing his fantastic Songlines Guide to Balkan Brass in issue 39. And they’re certainly a force to be reckoned with. The opening ‘Mediterranè 1’ is a tuneful blast that will make them popular at festivals across the continent. But it’s only a couple of tracks later, on ‘Apocalyptic Kaba’, that they reveal their gloriously Albanian sound with a snakey, sighing clarinet solo over a softly held drone. It’s a fantastic secret weapon that makes this band unique. The clarinets combine with the vocals of singer Hysni Zela and the backing vocalists on the eerie ‘What did the Eyes of Janina See?’. The clarinet and voice keen over long-held drones as the melodies make poignant dissonances. It’s a beautiful sound. The first brass band in Albania was founded in 1876, but there is no ubiquitous tradition of brass music, as there is in neighbouring Serbia and Macedonia. Fanfara Tirana only formed to play in that sort of idiom within the last few years and they have adopted a lot from the slow, polyphonic music of southern Albania to give them their distinctive, haunting clarinet style. It’s certainly time that Albanian music got its share of the limelight, and Fanfara Tirana is surely the band to do it. LINK
fROOTS (ENGLAND) review 12/07 by Garth Cartwright "Fanfara Tirana's debut album is definitely the pick of recent month. I know nothing about this Albanian brass band but upon first listen I wanted to know and hear more. Albania's amongst the most blighted of Balkan nations and somewhere we rarely hear music from - Kosovar tallava is a more prominent music form - and on initial inspection it coiuld be thought that this non-Roma band were junmping on the Balkan bandwagon, right down to the "Fanfara" name. Yet "Albanian Wedding" is a striking debut, the ensemble refusing to emulate the likes of Ciocarlia/Markovic, instead following Albanian flavours that are so distinctive to Albania/Kosovo/Macedonia. Veteran singer Albanian folk singer Hysni Zela guests on two tracks, his clear, strong voice risking with the band. Pumping rhythms and imaginative solos should make this album a favourite for those DJ-ing Balkan nights."
BRESCIA OGGI (ITALY) - Splendida esibizione del gruppo strumentale di Tirana e di Niko Zela in piazza del Foro. Se c'è un aggettivo che si presta in modo particolarmente adatto a definire il concerto dell'altra sera in piazza del Foro, per l'inaugurazione della rassegna "Note di colore", questo aggettivo è sicuramente "strepitoso". Non si può definire altrimenti il clima di prepotente sonorità e di festa musicale che la Fanfara Tirana uno straordinario complesso strumentale albanese - ha saputo creare davanti a un pubblico che ha assediato la piazza...
FOLKNOTES (ITALY) - Fanfara Tirana, la fanfara balcanica in versione albanese: devastante.
FOLK BULLETIN (ITALY) - E che buona musica, ritmata, incalzante. La partecipazione emotiva del pubblico, che ha ballato e cantato incessantemente per tutto il concerto, è stata infatti un altro importante elemento della serata.
LA REPUBBLICA (ITALY) - una dirompente orchestra di ottoni proveniente dall’Albania, che sta conquistando il pubblico di mezza Europa
IL TRENTINO (ITALY) - ... è stata la volta di Fanfara Tirana...che hanno regalato uno scatenato concerto di musica da ballo...
LIBERAZIONE (ITALY) - Un'entrata trionfale per la Fanfara Tirana nella piazza centrale...
LA PROVINCIA PAVESE (ITALY) - ...repertorio sempre travolgente, sprizzante energia e contraddistinto da una vivacità ritmica trascinante...Un mix sapientemente dosato in cui, strizzando l'occhio al repertorio internazionale, i temi tradizionali delle feste nuziali si sovrappongono alle atmosfere orientali...
MIGRANEWS (ITALY) - ...Arriva un morbido calo, un tono scuro che si allontana nella notte passando in mezzo al pubblico. E' una parte di "kaba", pura improvvisazione con clarinetto presente nella tradizione musicale del sud dell'Albania. Secondo la leggenda un clarinettista era sposato con una donna che amava immensamente, ma che si ammalò. Un giorno, prima di morire, lei chiamò il marito e gli disse: "Quando morirò, non piangere per me, ma lascia che lo faccia il clarinetto". E lui fece un pianto in musica. Era il primo "kaba"... un canto che parla di una ragazza che allegramente "quando passa al cimitero fa resuscitare i morti e fa morire i vivi". Il ritmo segue l'andatura della giovane donna e accelera per arrivare ad essere una vera corsa contro il tempo... Mentre andiamo via una signora anziana dice che si è divertita moltissimo, ha ballato tanto malgrado la sua artrosi e chiede quando ci sarà il prossimo concerto della Fanfara Tirana.
THIERRY SARTORETI (FRANCE) - BOMBARDIERS ORIENTAUX -. Albanian Wedding et Go Marko Go! - Ça chauffe chez le plombiers balkaniques. Boban Markovic, passe sa couronne à son fils alors que la Tirana albanaise livre un premier album extraordinaire ...Plus au Sud, en Albanie, l'inconnue Tirana réussit un coup de maitre. Cette fanfare serait la premiére du pays. Avant elle, deuis la fin du 19e siècle, trompettiste et souffleurs de bombardons n'entonnaient que des marches militaires et les airs patriotiques de la puissance en cours ò Tirana (Empire Ottoman, Monténégro, Gréce, Serbie, Empire austro-hongrois, Italie, Allemagne, Chine maoiste), ignorant tout du registre jouisseur des noces et des fiançailles. Evitant tout plagiat des fanfares de la Serbie voisine, se gardant également de copier l'incontournable Ciocarlia roumaine, la Tirana s'offre des incursions dans le chant polyphonique avec l'une des grandes voix du pays des aigles, Hysni Zela, et fait swinguer son répertoire original avec una aisance tout orientale.
SOPHIE ANDRE' ET IVES MARZIO (FRANCE) - ARTISTIQUE **** - Des musciques assez déroutantes, au carrefour de l'Occident et de l'Orient. On retrouve dans ces musiques de noces tous les rythmes de ces régions, depuis le longues complaintes instrumentales aux si jolies mélodies jusqu'aux rythmes endiables et qui ne semblent jamis pouvoir arreter le répétitions de thémes courts, devenant obsédant trés rapidement. TECHNIQUE **** - L'enregistrement réalisé à Tirana, ANVI Studios par Agim Xhemali est exselent, avec una image stéréo large et parfaitement lisible, chaque instument pouvant entre distingué dans l'ensemble. Les timbres sont bien respectés et savoureux à souhait.
MAGAZINE (FRANCE) - Comment présenter la zizique albanaise traditionelle? On pourrait dire que le pays est divisé en deux zones avec le nord qui seait monophonique et le sud qui serait polyphonique. Mais avec le risque que la personne qui lirait ces lignes ait subitement envie de se flinguer. Ou, tout aussi radical, qu'elle décide de se plonger dans le compte-rendu du dernier match du Paris Saint-Germain. La réalité, c'est que la Fanfara Tirana mérite d'autres égards. Il s'agit d'une musique pleine de panache où se croisent les courants anciens de la musique ottomane et l'influence des petites formations. C'est assez grandiose. On ne résiste capendant pas au plaisir de vous apprendre quelques noms qui n'apparaissent meme pas dans le Guide du Routard. Par exemple, saviez-vous qu'un " saze " est un ensemble instrumental ? Dorénavant, vous pourrez lancer cette faire de la musique : " Sois saze et tais-toi "
MAGAZINE (FRANCE) - **** COUP DE COEUR POUR FANFARA TIRANA - ALBANIAN WEDDING & BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR - GO MARKO GO! Le filon des Balkans est bel et bien intact an 2008, comme le prouvent ces deux CD particuliérement endiablés at vitupérant, qui nous replangent dans des ambiances " Kusturiquesques " avec force cuivres, rythmiques at folie tout court... La fanfare de Tirana et le groupe de dua père-fils Markovic sont la preuve vivante que le fanfares de l'Europe Centrale sont encore un parfait chainon entre tradition festive et recherches musicales contemporaines.