European Soup

A shiver shoots through me every time I hear the music of Les Yeux Noirs. It’s a complex reaction to the band’s fusion of Eastern European folk traditions and modern sounds, the passion emanating from the six musicians, and the realization that they’re keeping the musical traditions of the Roma and Eastern European Jews alive decades after the sound should’ve been extinct.

The band was founded in the early 1990s by brothers Olivier and Eric Slabiak, who are classically trained violinists and the grandchildren of Polish Jews who settled in Paris in the 1920s. To get a sense of the band, start with the title of its latest album, 2005’s tChorba, a play on çorba, the Turkish word for “soup.” Though the band’s music has often been oversimplified as a mix of Gypsy and klezmer music, it’s a simmering of diverse sounds, with musicians singing in Yiddish, Romani, and Russian. “Our arrangements and compositions are influenced by different [types of music], like French songs, pop music, rock, funk, and very traditional music,” Olivier says. “We like to add modern rhythm on old melodies from the shtetl [traditional Eastern European Jewish communities], and mix in a modern sound. We also are very influenced by Romanian, Yugoslavian, and Russian traditional music.”

Les Yeux Noir is a celebration of funky rhythms, samples, and electric guitar blending with violin, accordion, and drums. The sonic textures emerge as an affirmation of life grounded in cultural traditions that have been pushed close to extinction. Four of the band members share vocal duties, and the high points involve all their voices joining together.

“We have the sensation to be one voice,” Olivier says. “It’s always great to feel that. We all have very different resonant voices, but our voices mix well together.” May 3. The Cedar, 416 Cedar Ave., Mpls., 612-338-2674

Bill Snyder writes about music for Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.