Credits:Vocals: Shantel (2-17), Areti Ketime (2), Imam Baildi (8, 11)
Written by Stefan Hantel (1-4, 6-9, 11-17), Areti Ketime (2), Tea Mikic (4), Lee Perry (5), Despoina Gotsopoulou (6, 13), Antonis Spathis (6, 13), Gerasimos Aspromallis (6, 13), Giorgos Nikolopoulos (6, 13), Iason Vakrinos (6, 13), Kostas Nikolopoulos (6, 13), Lysandros Falireas (8, 11), Orestis Falireas (8, 11), Leonard W. Dillon (10)
Mastered at Masterdisk by Scott Hull
Release Notes:"Cosmopolitan, globetrotter, paprika bambaataa, constantly in search of new sounds: Shantel gracefully turns pop-cultural clichés and conventionally-accepted genre-definitions upside-down. When he brings the entire stage to life with his Bucovina Club Orkestar, molding global sounds into compact, anarchic hymns, eclecticism and escapism no longer seem so very far apart. No worries: The Kiez is Alright. Disko Devil Shantel is on the case" - Rémy Kolpa Kopoul.
The new studio album Viva Diaspora is strongly inspired by the creative anarchy of crisis-ridden Athens, Greece. Viva Diaspora has no intention of jumping onto the crossover-and-remix bandwagon. Viva Diaspora is bold, risky, and self-assured; this is how acoustic, traditional, and Mediterranean songs sound today and this is how they can come into their own in a contemporary party context. Viva Diaspora sounds like a road movie - cinema for the ears - of a 24-hour trip through Athens, Frankfurt, Paris, Kingston, Brooklyn, Istanbul. Includes collaborations with Areti Ketime and Imam Baildi.
Stefan Hantel, better known by his stage name Shantel (born 2 March 1968), is a DJ and producer based in Frankfurt, Germany. He is known for his work with gypsy brass orchestras, DJing and remixing traditional Balkan music with electronic beats.
Shantel began his DJ career in Frankfurt, Germany, and was inspired by the audience reaction to gypsy brass bands such as Fanfare Ciocărlia and trumpeter Boban Marković to infuse electronically tweaked Balkan gypsy music into his DJ set. Shantel released two compilations of his popular DJ night, Bucovina Club, on his own Essay label, which won the Club Global award in the 2006 BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music. He was one of several DJs to remix recordings of Taraf de Haïdouks and Kočani Orkestar on the Electric Gypsyland compilations from Belgium's Crammed Discs label, and released his next album on that label.
After pioneering the concept of Balkan clubbing with his now-legendary Bucovina Club parties and albums, Shantel moves on to the next level and releases Disko Partizani! in 2007 (his first solo album in seven years), which lays the foundations for an innovative new brand of pop music. Disko Partizani!, followed in 2009 by Planet Paprika, departed somewhat from the techno sound of Bucovina Club, concentrating more on the music's Balkan roots.
With their organic mix of South-European & Balkan music and club-friendly electronics, Shantel's Bucovina Club nights revolutionized the music scene and became an instant success: tired of dancing over and over again to the sound of usual club fodder, audiences of all ages and origins were conquered by the vitality and excitement of these electro/Balkan mixtures. Shantel started playing clubs, parties and rock festivals around the world, and inevitably drove crowds to ecstatic bliss.
We're not talking about innocuous, politically-correct, silly folk dance classes here: whether he Djs or plays live with a band, Shantel has the knack for turning any venue into a vortex of pure euphoria, where people end up stage-diving, belly dancing, and generally going mad… In other words, he's simply brought the Balkans to clubland, and his work soon inspired a whole generation of DJs who turned away from house, techno or breakbeats to embrace this new sound.
The nail was further hit on the head with Shantel's standard-setting remixes of tracks by the likes of Taraf de Haïdouks (created for Crammed's Electric Gypsyland remix series which, coincidentally, was initiated around the same time) and as co-producer of Mahala Raï Banda’s debut album, as well as a handful of his own, seminal compositions (included in the Bucovina Club albums). This in turn most probably played a part in the birth of these live bands (sometimes dubbed 'Balkan Rock' or Gypsy Punk') which integrate Balkan, rock, hip hop & reggae elements.
In 2011 he released an album with Oz Almog named Kosher Nostra Jewish Gangsters Greatest Hits. This album is a wild mix of Swing, Jazz, Twist, Charleston and Yiddish songs and Ballads.
2013 brings a new release to the table. Anarchy & Romance is something quite different. Well - the funky-as-a-funky thing grooves are still there but the electronica is notably absent. This is more retro in timbre, with plenty of tight, funky guitar and infectious melodies. There's a definite 1950s/60s rock'n'roll rhythm and blues vibe colliding with the Balkan influence on this most excellent collection of tunes. Only one track includes a sample. The rest is played by real live musicians and in a way that no-one has done for decades. Shantel is ably assisted by such luminaries as the mighty Justin Adams (from Robert Plant's band but we love his own releases), Cherilyn MacNeil and Emma Greenfield from neo-folk band Dear Reader and bassist Ken Taylor.
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