Celtic Connections

Slobodan Trkulja & Balkanopolis

02 ABC

Glasgow

Rob Adams

THREE STARS

Part of Sauchiehall Street became a small Balkan enclave on Friday as Celtic Connections welcomed one of Serbia’s leading musical figures together with a more locally sourced supporting cast. Edinburgh-based vocal group Kuchke sang in the polyphonic style possibly most familiar over here through Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares with winsome descending chords and the excited yelp that often brings songs from that part of the world to an end and later proved to be a Serbian trait too.

Their brief set and that of the high energy klezmer sextet Tanz, with their soaring clarinet and violin melodies and urgent, percussive grooves, didn’t really allow either group to make a full impact but both were enjoyable just the same.

The main event, singer, piper, clarinettist and kaval player Slobodan Trkulja, arrived with little ceremony and immediately turned on the charm. A combination of futuristic-looking rock star, all in black leather with a distinctive jet coiffure, and traditional music resource, he fronts a nine-piece band that plays with variously hard rocking aggression, ethereal atmospherics and folk troupe nimbleness.

Some of the songs tended towards the over-grandiose, although everything was expertly delivered and Trkulja matches showmanship - including foot on monitor piping and pre-empting any ‘Hendrix of the goatskin pipes’ descriptions by quoting the Voodoo Chile guitar lick - with genuine traditional instrumental mastery and a startling vocal range.

He knows about Scotland and Scottish music, too. Martyn Bennett and Fraser Fifield are among his heroes, we learned, and he introduced a traditional Serbian incitement to rain with a fine line in mock sympathy for us Scots never having had to resort to such measures.