Press Release

shunTA! 

LONDON BAND TAKING TRADITIONAL

EAST EUROPEAN ROMANI SOUNDS

STRAIGHT TO THE HEART

"The best support act we could imagine!" 

Fanfare Ciocarlia

"An amazing act that melts the audience into a steaming frenzy" 

Chris Tofu MBE

“This band is fantastic. We saw them play at Off the Cuff... 

Infectious frenzied music making that brings you to your feet and gets you dancing. Wild. Pure joy!”

Client

London’s high-octane soul-stirring band shunTA! are releasing debut album “At the Kafana” on 6th December 2024 through Rakia Records. This explosion of intense Balkan sound is created by musicians connected to the music not through bloodline, but through the heart. shunTA! deliver extraordinary Romani and Eastern European folk tunes, anthems and singalongs. Their mini - but massive - 9-piece orchestra includes a horn section (trumpet, clarinet, saxophone and sousaphone) string section (mandolin, tambura and violin) as well as piano, drums and darbuka.

shunTA! have taken the festival circuit by storm including Boomtown, Wilderness, Secret Garden Party, Rhythmtree, Shindig, Camp Bestival and Brighton Fringe. They sold-out London’s Jamboree and supported big time international Balkan bands, including iconic Romanian band Fanfare Ciocarlia, Seattle-based folk punk Balkan music band Kultur Shock, Electro/Balkan DJ Shantel and the eclectic group, The Turbans. Now “At the Kafana” dances wild whirlwinds of emotion through traditional gypsy songs, weaving stories of star-crossed fates as they glide through time. 

shunTA! comprises multi-national musicians who met in the London Balkan music scene. They present the Balkans, folk, Roma music and culture as seen through their own eyes. The band have made an impression on London's Balkan diaspora community and are their number one go-to Balkan band.

shunTA! are living proof of Romani gypsy music transcending boundaries and touching something universally deep.

Lead vocalist Sarah Montague states:

“Balkan and Gypsy music in particular really has an intensely emotional and transformative effect on people, audiences and also musicians like us. We feel it time and time again when we perform, a whole room of people forgetting themselves and allowing us to transport them to that mythical kafana under the stars. This is the feeling that we chase and drives us. And that we have tried to recreate as closely as possible with this album full of our favourite songs played just as we perform them live.”

In Romani, shunTA! means “Hey listen up!”.

And it’s impossible not to.

Raw powerful vocals occupy the room and demand the story not just to be heard, 

but to be felt. To be felt as if it belonged to you. 

You've been around, you've seen a lot

You didn't have to do this

You have filled my youth with tears

You have sent me into mourning.

(Ibrahim)

This isn’t a slow sad love song. The poignant lyrics of track “Ibrahim” set to fast infectious music get you up and spinning. The antithetical union of sadness and upbeat gypsy rhythm have you yearning for the protagonist’s lost love.

This pain grants entry to the Kafana.

Sarah Montague describes the symbolism of the Kafana:

“The Kafana, a mess of alcohol, coffee, food and folk music in former Yugoslav countries is layered with meaning. Uniquely Ottoman and Balkan, this is the buzzing scene where hyper local folk culture, music, food and drink meet. It is the place to drown your sorrows in a vat of rakia whilst being serenaded by an itinerant singer and surrounded by gamblers and prostitutes. If you go to Belgrade and meet your modern, sophisticated friends, they will most likely take you to a Thai restaurant or to a bar with an English name and semi-ironic posters of Bowie and Marc Bolan. However, it is the old school Kafana that attracts Westerners like us who have seen the Kafana depicted in all Emir Kusturica films. It was at the Kafana where we fell in love with the music. And it is only at the Kafana where we can experience the real thing!”

Whether a regular or visiting for the very first time, shunTA! will take you to the Kafana where experiencing the real thing, you will also fall in love with heartache.

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Press Release written by Aashi Prime