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Bucium is a Romanian rock band with folk, ambient and symphonic metal influences. It's defined by the use of two violins together with guitar, bass, drums, traditional instruments and voice.
Bucium's discographic materials come with a concept: they mix Romanian legends and fairy tales with an introspective, spiritual music, brought to a contemporary state. With every show and song, the listeners are able to recall their childhood's purity, when they were listening to fairy tales and exploring a fantastic universe.
Live performances have a syncretic concept: the music is synchronized with tho ...read more
Bucium is a Romanian rock band with folk, ambient and symphonic metal influences. It's defined by the use of two violins together with guitar, bass, drums, traditional instruments and voice.
Bucium's discographic materials come with a concept: they mix Romanian legends and fairy tales with an introspective, spiritual music, brought to a contemporary state. With every show and song, the listeners are able to recall their childhood's purity, when they were listening to fairy tales and exploring a fantastic universe.
Live performances have a syncretic concept: the music is synchronized with thorough video projections or spectacular mappings.
Lyrics and music are original productions, but all Bucium materials have roots in local myths and legends. They were not passed along from generation to generation, but composed from scratch in line with the archaic Romanian sound.
BIOGRAPHY
In 2008, the band released their debut album, named "Voievozii", mixed and mastered in Germany by Franky Winkelmann (Lake of Tears, Gurd, Destruction). The album was distributed in Romania by A&A Records and received a wave of favorable reviews within music media.
Between 2004 and 2015, Bucium performed over 150 shows. Among the main ones we recall: Apocalyptica – 2008, Bob Dylan – 2010, Medieval Festivals – Sighisoara, Ardud, Cetatea Neamtului, ‘The last transhumance' project – unplugged concert accompanied by video montage from Dragos Lumpan's homonymic movie.
At the end of 2016, Bucium released a new album, “Live in the Hidden Woods”. It holds the live versions of the songs that were most appreciated by the live concerts' audience.
Starting with this album, Andi Dumitrescu created a special digipack, of 21x21 cm (8.3x8.3 inches), each song having an illustration created by a digital artist and started also Audiosama Records, the band's indie label. The whole idea was to offer memorabilia and something collectible, a physical product containing the music, because the streaming abducts the joy of holding an album and discovering all it's details. Each album comes with a code for downloading the digital album. For Live in the Hidden Woods, the Romanian digital artist Tiberiu Militaru took care of the art direction.
The new album was recorded by Alex Pascu, Goodbye to Gravity's leader, but also a close friend to Bucium band members. Alex only had the chance to edit the first album track: the process was interrupted by Colectiv nightclub fire - a deadly fire in Romania, which killed 64 people and injured hundreds.
“Live in the Hidden Woods” also includes two bonus tracks that are a tribute to Adrian Rugină, band's former drummer. Adrian died at Colectiv because of his effort to save other people from the fire. The bonus tracks represent the first and last tracks that were recorded with Adrian.
In the autumn-winter of 2016, Bucium promoted the new material by going in a national tour. They had live appearances in all the large cities of the country: Cluj, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța, Craiova, Buzău, Galați, Râmnicu Vâlcea.
The tour ended in April 2017, with a live in Expirat Halele Carol - a club in Bucharest, Romania's capital. The public witnessed a unique experience: through 6 projectors disposed in a matrix, the whole video projection was “screened” (or mapped) all around the venue.
In December 2017, Bucium released a new album, called "Miorița". The album was recorded between 2014 and 2017 and mixed&mastered in Switzerland by V.O.Pulver from Gurd. The songs on the album were written between 1999 and 2003 and capture the essence of the band. Enhancing the album, the band created a visual trilogy consisting of "Codrule, Măria Ta", "Frunză verde foi mărunte" and "Zorile". For each of the other tracks on the album the band released animated videos starting from the artwork created by Radu Damian for the album. All of these videos are available on the band's YouTube official channel. The tour supporting the album, which started in October 2017, continued during the whole of 2018.
In the end of 2018 Bucium releases "Drumul robilor" (Road of Serfdom), the first single from the next studio album, "Zimbrul Alb" (White Wisent), single that is promoted during a series of live shows held in the country's biggest cities, spanning throughout all of 2019. In the beginning of 2019, Bucium starts working on the new album and, in the summer, after a series of shows in festivals all over the country, the band releases the video for "Drumul robilor". The year 2019 ends with a live show where Bucium performs several songs together with the Passione string quartet, including two tracks that would be released on the next studio album. In 2020 the band goes back into the recording studio for finalizing the "Zimbrul Alb" album. On the 1st of December, the second single and video of the new album, "Vânător", is released.
The year 2021 marked the band's performances, together with the Elvira Godeanu theater from Târgu-Jiu, in the rock opera "Cazul Tudor Vladimirescu" that has the music written by Andi Dumitrescu. The play was directed by Gavriil Pinte, which created an impressive show encompassing more than sixty actors and dancers. In the same year, the band finalized the recordings for the Zimbrul Alb (White Wisent) album, releasing the single for "Harap-Alb (White Moor)", together with Bogdan Luparu from the band Bucovina. The album was available for orders starting with the month of December, in the same unique format, a 21 x 21 cm digipack, each song on the album having it's own drawing created by Radu Damian, all of the 8 images creating, in the end, one big poster. Bucium decided not to release the album on the streaming services, making it available only in the special digipack format, on the band's bandcamp site.
STYLE AND INFLUENCES
Bucium is a project that combines elements of folk, progressive rock, ambient and symphonic metal.
The music flows smoothly from aggressive to melodious, from uplifting to passionate. Its sound is actually defined by this change of rhythms, by the alternation of the instruments and a frequent change of tempo.
PHILOSOPHY AND LYRICS
The name of the band is symbolic, denoting the Romanian alphorn (“bucium”), a musical instrument used by Romanian shepherds in the mountains. Just as the old alphorn was used to communicate coded messages for confrontations, gatherings or celebrations, the band's songs are in fact stories and fairy tales containing coded messages.
We don't want to go back to traditions and origins, but only to help people understand them better. If we understand Romanian mythology in depth, we can also understand our people's soul and we'll be able to appreciate ourselves a bit more. Maybe we can get back in touch with nature, so that we can reach harmony and balance.
MEMBERS
Alexandra Milea - violin
Corina Gheorghe - touring violinist
Alexandru Dumitrescu Florescu - voice, guitars, wind instruments, keyboard, composer, writer
Mihai Balabaș - violin, guitar
Augustin 'Adi' Comorașu - bass
Cristian Răducanu - drums, percussion « hide |
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