Shantel // Planet Paprika
Cat.-No.: AY CD 23/CRAW
International release by Crammed Discs


After more than 250 internationally acclaimed and celebrated SHANTEL live shows in the course of 2008, taking them from Glastonbury to Roskilde, from Southside to the Hurricane Festival, from East Coast to West Coast, gathering a host of awards and chart positions on the way, culminating in platinum status in Turkey, SHANTEL and his BUCOVINA CLUB ORKESTAR, exhausted but exhilarated, were making their way back to Germany one cold, wet December evening. Been there, done that, bought the tee-shirt? Well, not quite: just as they crossed into home territory, there was yet another surprise in store for this tried and tested crew. Their van was flagged down by the border guards. As they politely opened the door of the van, the latest mix of a SHANTEL song came blaring out of the speakers: “Do you think I am Russian? / Do you suggest Romania? The truth is I am just exotic & erotic ‘cause I am coming from the Planet Paprika!” Followed by a Byzantine flurry of brass sounds – brazz, brazz, brazz & trä, trä, trääääääiieh. It was enough to blast the hats off the border guards’ heads. “Planet Paprika?” they shrieked, their pulses skyrocketing to 180 a minute.
And what followed was straight out of a bad detective film. The van was searched, the SHANTEL banner with DISKO PARTIZANI in big, friendly letters was confiscated. The musicians were thrown out of their bunks. Empty vodka bottles and yoghurt cartons hit the deck. The officers shook their heads. “How can any decent German listen to such a horrible racket? It’s uncivilised and primitive! What’s that noise got to do with Europe and Germany?” And, just for good measure, a passer-by yelled “Show ‘em your passports, you p*ss-artists.”
The SHANTEL hymn DISKO PARTIZANI has shown the world that it really does exist: music without frontiers. All over Europe, boys and girls are screaming DISKO, DISKO PARTIZANI! And their grandmothers are belly-dancing, their grandfathers are jumping around, their parents are elated. The style-police are left scratching their heads. “OMG, what’s all this Balkan Pop stuff? We just don’t get it...”
But Shantel does. He knows how to turn a club, a concert hall or the dusty earth of an open-air festival into a temporary autonomous zone – a place where integration isn’t something to be debated at length, but where it actually becomes reality.
Established academics and immigrant kids share the same space. Planet Paprika is a place in constant flux, always on the move – and the best thing about it is that you can follow in its wake!
Planet Paprika has its own set of values: the pursuit of genuinely European pop music. This is where north meets south and east meets west and they are all equal in the mind of the musician. Shantel is driving on deeper into the creation of a truly Central European pop music. Its roots are in the past, in the popular music that has fired the imagination of generations for centuries – and yet it is something totally new and different.
Planet Paprika is taking the concerts halls, clubs and festivals of Europe by storm. And now it’s even crossing the big pond: a US tour is scheduled for September. The first, long-awaited single will be released at the end of May to blow the cobwebs out of your ears. At the same time, Shantel will be touring with a new female vocalist and a new line-up of accordion, fiddle and trumpet. And then, with a big brass fanfare comes the grand finale: Shantel and the Bucovina Club Orkestar release their new album at the end of August!

Website bucovina.de