The Pan Global Cargo of Darko Rundek

09/05/2006 01:34AM

Mhm A-Ha Oh Yeah Da-Da is the latest release by Darko Rundek & Cargo Orkestar on Piranha Musik. The CD’s songs tell of the loneliness of exile, the placelessness of the internet, the reality of modern metropolis, and the utopia of a love that transcends all borders.

The title, Mhm A-Ha Oh Yeah Da-Da , is a pan-global translation of colloquial affirmation. While an indication of mutual understanding, many of the songs on the album focus on the struggle to find common linguistic ground, like the story of “Helga,” which recounts a budding romance between a German woman and a foreigner on the streets of Berlin, or the narrator in the opening track “U-Bahn,” who speaks in three different languages—French, German, and English—as he tries to navigate his way through a foreign train station.

Musically, the songs on Mhm A-Ha Oh Yeah Da-Da reflect the experimentation with different influences that each band member brings. Refusing to be bound to one particular style or language, the album ranges from the cabaret-like “Slick Seńorita” to the Balkan dance rhythms of “Kolo;” from the eerily poetic atmosphere of “12 Ptica” to the slightly pornographic scat of “Wanadoo.”

Electronic musician Vedran Peternel, who first collaborated with Darko to transmit radio broadcasts from a cargo ship in the Adriatic during the civil war, provides samples and loops of acoustic instruments as the basis of many of the songs.

Other musical collaborators include violinist Isabel; Dušan Vranić and Đani Pervan, instrumentalists who were once flown out of Sarajevo during the civil war; French double bass player Bruno Arnal; French/Portuguese trombonist Emmanuel Ferraz; and Igor Pavlica, former trumpeter of Haustor.

Also included is a bonus video track of “Svitanje,” a sentimental homage to the perfect timelessness of love through the ages.

Buy Mhm A-Ha Oh Yeah Da-Da.

World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20060903193404666