Folk Bands and Artists
Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra
http://new.thenosmokingorchestra.com
When not making movies, Serbia’s Emir Kusturica – the only film director apart from Francis Ford Coppola, to win the Palme d’Or in Cannes twice – can be found on the road with his irreverent, anarchic and genre-defying No Smoking Orchestra. With a line-up that includes accordion, sax and tuba billed by their charismatic leader as an “Explosive Mix of Nitroglycerine-Type Sounds , the ten-piece band’s frantic Balkanised subversions of rumba, rock and gypsy music are designed to entertain, amuse and provoke in equal measure. “We take garbage and we turn it into something beautiful, like a pagan ritual,” says Kusturica.