Goran Bregovic is the most famous Balkan composer and perhaps the only European rock-star.
His official web page is here: Goran. Lots of information is also on the Wikipedia.
I have been at several of his concerts – mainly in Sofia, but also one in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
His music is a wonderful mixture of sounds and images from all countries on the Balkans. He wrote the music for several movies, among them great ones like Emir Kusturica’s Times of the Gypsies, and Underground (they won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and Arizona Dream (singing Iggy Pop), but also Unni Straume’s Music for Weddings and Funerals, Nana Djordadze’s 27 Missing Kisses, and Patrice Chereau’s La Reine Margot (Palme d’Or), among others.
What’s the relation to Creative Commons?
I think Goran’s music by default is under the CC license. He uses folk music from the Balkans, and then arranges it with his unique sense of using wind instruments, classic orchestra, male choir, drummers and the great voices of the Bulgarian folklore singers from Philip Kutev National Ensemble.
He then publishes his music, and let it be used by whoever wants it. I’ve been recently at a concert of the Gypsy Festival in New York (November 2005), at the Roxi’s. There were several bands before the Gogol Bordello one, which were playing some interpretations of Goran’s music.
Goran has been known for publicly acknowledging that he likes to “steal” music from different folklores on the Balkans.
His piece “Ederlezi” (from the Times of the Gypsies”) was used in a number of follow-up songs, including one by the British genius violin player Nigel Kennedy.
Although he has not officially recognized his music under CC, I believe he should be informed about this possibility, and he may turn into one of the powerful figures promoting CreativeCommons.
I think that’s a great idea. Have you contacted him regarding this? I was just about to send a link to your post to the contact e-mail address on Goran’s site but decided to ask you first, in case you have done so already.
I would be good if you can also write him, Silvina.
The more people tell him, the better!
It’s nice that Bregovic does that, but a lot of musicians aren’t happy that he has apparently taken gypsy songs and called them his own. If this is the case, it’s thievery, but I’ve never seen proof of this. In any case, he’s a wonderful musician.