Introduction to Babaganoush

We are Babaganoush, a band that plays a great mix of Gypsy Music, Balkan Beats & Greek Folk. Our current band members are Malini Chidzey (violin, vocals), Andre Vikas (clarinet), Stephen Stanisic (piano accordion), Tom Lee (double bass) & Byron Triandafyllidis (darbuka, percussion, bouzouki, vocals). Our love for folklorique sounds in a contemporary scene has led us to perform and share with others in the community such a beautiful traditional form of music that is constantly growing. From the Spiegeltent to Europe’s liveliest bars, and Australia’s greatest music festivals Babaganoush have ventured the world music circuit. We have expanded our Balkan and Gypsy musical experiences collaborating with others in the same field. The diversity of music we perform includes: Gypsy/Romani & Balkan music from Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Macedonia & Turkey. Over the years the line up has changed a little and we have evolved in the most exciting and wonderful ways with the different combinations of musicians. We have already produced 2 albums BUT this was over 10 years ago. With the current line up we have been working together solidly for a couple of years now and have come to a point where we have felt compelled to record a 3rd album. The new album will allow us to share some great new and wonderful repertoire with our fans who have been starved of a new recording for so long! The heart spirited album title “Dance of the Mother” is an English translation of a Serbian Gypsy track we play on the CD which captures the richness & fullness of the Balkan Gypsy music sound of the band. We hope to be able to share this bold, evocative & carefully crafted album with all those we already know us and appreciate us, and those who may not have heard us before but are into Balkan and Gypsy music.

HERE IS A SNEAK PREVIEW,  A TASTE OF SOME OF THE NEW MUSIC ON OUR NEW ALBUM! REMEMBER IT ISN'T FULLY EDITED/MIXED AND MASTERED YET, WE ARE WAITING FOR THE CROWD FUNDING TO HELP US WITH THE REST OF THESE EXPENSES: 

https://soundcloud.com/malini-chidzey-566737622/cocek-srece

https://soundcloud.com/malini-chidzey-566737622/cekurjankino-sample-of-dance-of-the-mother

HERE IS SOME OF OUR OLDER MUSIC. WE'LL BE SHOWING YOU SOME OF THE NEW MUSIC THROUGHOUT THE CAMPAIGN! ALSO- WATCH OUR VIDEO ABOVE FOR A SNEAK PREVIEW! REMEMBER IT ISN'T FULLY MIXED AND MASTERED YET, WE ARE WAITING FOR THE CROWD FUNDING TO HELP US WITH THE REST OF THESE EXPENSES. We'd like to thank Rodney Dekker for helping film some of the live gig footage you'll see!

https://soundcloud.com/malini-chidzey-566737622/the-basso

https://soundcloud.com/malini-chidzey-566737622/birdy

https://soundcloud.com/malini-chidzey/07-gigi

A little history of how the band was formed and the greater inspiration behind performing & recording Gypsy & Balkan Music

Babaganoush was born 15 years ago when Malini Chidzey decided she had to explore Gypsy & Balkan folk music in the contemporary folk music scene. Her love for traditional Balkan & Gypsy music has led her to travel widely, through the Balkans (Transylvania, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia) in search of finding other musicians who have kept their traditions alive in their home countries. She has collaborated with many great international musicians such as “Taraf de Haidouks” lead violinist Caliu, Alex Horvarth, village violinist from Transylvania and “Kolo” the National Folk Orchestra of Serbia.

Here is a photo of the famous Romani Romanian Taraf Caliu (Gheorghe Anghel ) and Malini at WOMAD 2008

Malini has always wanted to share this incredibly beautiful music with such strong roots to many people in the community. In Hungary she has seen the revival of folk music and dance come alive and has observed here in Australia it is not just Balkans but many people from the wider community who have liked tapping into the primidorial nature of traditional folk music with it's ancient beats. She has interestingly witnessed how people have been completely magnetised to these natural acoustic sounds which have spoken to a greater part of themselves yearning for this rich rawness in music & life.

Malini has played in a few different popular Balkan folk & Gypsy music inspired bands such as Slijvovitz Orchestra and The Counterfeit Gypsies. Her best loved and most nurtured baby though is Babaganoush. She has managed, peformed, written original compositions & transcribed many pieces over the years for the band to play to very enthused audiences and fans.

Babaganoush produced 2 albums over a decade ago and it is now long overdue that we have another recording for our devoted fans & wider audiences through out Australia & the rest of the world! The first 2 albums had big costs involved and this is sadly why there has not been another album recorded for the last 10 years.

Last words
Babaganoush has been invited to perform at festivals around Australia. This experience has been so enriching, we've played alongside some extremely talented musicians! But it has also shown us that the Australian Folk scene is in real need of some diversity! We have been trying to fill that void ever since, maintaining close relationships with other world music groups and actively seeking opportunities to show Australian audiences that the Balkan music we play can really bring many parts of the Balkan and Australian community together, as much as Serbian & Croatian tennis players soccer teams do. Let's share our music as widely as an independent artist can. By supporting our album recording you will help keep alive a very authentic, spirited and well loved Balkan & Gypsy group in Melbourne and also keep the folk music scene juicy and vibrant, as everyone wants it.

BUDGET

$1350 Recording & mixing, hire of guest musician

$1265 Mastering

$1000 Cd Duplication

$1000 Professional music clip

$350 Promotions

$150 Artwork for CD

$215 Pozible fees

Budget details and challenges

We have started the first process of making the new album. It is very exciting!! We have had to pay out of our very hard earned gig money to cover the beginning stages of the recording. So far we have paid for Goran Veljanoski to record us at Sonic Temple. To make the album something extraordinary to listen to we have invited special guest Stefan Noceveski to record with us. He has created some exquisite & heart-warming sounds to the album which has added some contrast to a couple of tracks. His very traditional Macedonian trumpet ornamentation has given the album a great presence which listeners sure will appreciate. These kind of collaborations are very important to Babaganoush and we would not want to feel like we can’t afford to reach out to the very best musicians in Australia because of financial limitations.

We have also collaborated with Lucy Pierce, a local artist to Warburton where Malini lives and paid for some artwork of hers to make the CD cover. Using her vivid painting “Listening at the Loom of Her Love” has enabled us to create such a beautiful cover which really helps depict the spirit of the music Babaganoush has recorded.

However we still have a long way to go. We have mastering expenses to cover, Cd duplication, promotional costs. We would also love to have a professional video music clip to go with the album we are bringing out. This will allow us to really bring ourselves forth more on the international and national stage.

Additional Costs 

Of course there are always more expenses than expected so we would very much like to raise more than the target we have set. With the figures above we are trying to cover the basics. We love the idea of offering you all some kind of reward in return like the album or one of the many other packages which people can choose to engage in to have a meaningful experience. As we have already let you know where we are at with the project, so far we have done the recording but only completed 75% of the mixing. We have had to pay for it out of our own pockets and forgo most of the money earned at the last few gigs we have done. We have a good idea that we will need one or two more mixing sessions to complete the process of mixing and have accounted for it in our pozible budget. With any project though as we all well know there are often unforseen or unpredictable additional costs that pop up. What if we need one more mixing session than anticipated to properly polish it off and make putting the album out worthwhile? Also how about the costs we thought we would cover ourselves like paying to hire 2 of the album launch venues, a good sound engineer for the night & any extra promo costs. Ultimately we would really like a helping hand from the community to make it easier for us to perform for you all in a great environment. 

We would like to do our Babaganoush album launch, for both those in the city, as this is where most of the band live and our fans are, as well as out in the Yarra Valley, as this is where Malini has lived for almost a decade . We'd love to be able to serve Malini's community who have supported the band over many years as much as the wonderful city crowd who have been ever so loyal and supportive.

In the end we want to bring out the best product we possibly can and this means sometimes a little more money than we would all like to spend. We are prouder than we ever have been in taking on this recording project. Some of us in the band have spent many hours of our spare time listening and mixing and refining the whole album to deliver something special. There has been a real care to bring out something wonderful and memorable for all. It will be a happy moment for everyone involved (us musicians, supporters, radio presenters, the wider community, family & friends) once it is all finished. And we are going to thank you now for choosing to be a part of it!