At first sight, the band's name looks a little bit like the DaDaist answer to Lambada. But in fact the orchestra is named after the driven fantasies of bandleader, composer and multimedia-artist Boris Kovac when confronted with the grim reality of living and working in the war-ridden territory of the Balkan states. Written out in full the orchestra's name actually means La Danza Apocalyptica Balcanica a perfect match to their music: An eccentric cycle of dances like tango, waltz, calypso or rumba, played in the style of a syphilitic salon-orchestra, switching rapidly between the atmosphere of a decadent café in 1920s Vienna and the Titanic half an hour after every drink came with ice. Brought up in what was once the cosmopolitan and multicultural society of Novi Sad, capital of the multiethnic region of Vojvodina, Boris Kovac feels as if he is, in many ways, locked behind bars.
La Danza Apocalyptica Balcanica is Kovac's artistic answer to the pressures from both the internal political situation and the fact that his country is only slowly recovering from international pariah status - and he's on a furious ride across the musical languages of the Balkan with only one thought in mind: Dance! Right here and right now, for it could be your last!

womex 2001 guide book