After spending 2008 tirelessly partying in festivals, concert halls and clubs and gathering a host of awards, Shantel and his mighty Bucovina Club Orkestar are back with their unique blend of Balkan music. An expanded line-up features new female vocalists and a front line of accordion, fiddle and trumpet.

Shantel pioneered the concept of Balkan clubbing with his now-legendary Bucovina Club in Frankfurt. He spread the idea around the world with remixes of tracks by the likes of Mahala Rai Banda, Taraf de Haidouks, Kocani Orkestar and many more. In 2007 he formed the Bucovina Orkestar, featuring musicians from mid- and East Europe, which performed at a sell-out gig at Koko, London in February 2008.

On 'Planet Paprika', music from the east meets west and north meets south and, for Shantel, they are all completely equal. Its cultural roots are in the past, in the popular music that has fired the imagination of generations for centuries - and yet it becomes something totally new and different. Shantel redefines the notion of music as a unifying, celebratory force in a way that ditches geography in favour of pure fun!

Personnel:
Shantel (various instruments, vocals & programming), Marcus Darius (additional drums, guitars & programming), Vladimir Karparov (alto sax), François Castiello (accordion), Dario Ivkovic (accordion), Filip Simeonov (clarinet), Marko Markovic - (trumpet), Brenna MacCrimmon, Mantiz, Yuriy Gurzhy, Anestis Delias, Jannis Karis (vocals)