My globe-trotting friend Mister F visited Albania a few years ago and kindly bought me a compilation CD of local pop music titled "Super Perlat e Jugut". From that CD, this is Sinan Hoxha with "Kenge Per Cerciz Topullin". It takes a little while to get going but it is worth the wait.
I have never been to Albania. I have however been very close. In 2007 I went with Mister F - that man again - to Macedonia. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Ohrid, which despite its name is a delightful small town and UNESCO Heritage Site on the banks of the equally delightful Lake Ohrid. Albania is on the other side of the lake. Those blurred hills you can see in this failed attempt to capture the unique light there are Albanian.
While in Ohrid I bought a CD by Ferus Mustafov, also known as Ferus King because he is the King of Macedonian gypsy wedding music. The cat plays a mean saxaphone, as you can hear on this track: "What A Wonderful Woman".Here is a clip of Sinan Hoxha in action, supported by some dancing divas from Durres:
And in order not to leave Macedonian noses out of joint, here is Ferus blowing up a storm.
... and to not put Greek noses out of joint, that's (Former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia.
ReplyDeleteThis has just reminded me of the incident in Albania where LPDR had a row in car hire office about why they hadn't got our booking. It was only later we realised we'd gone into a different car hire company to the one he'd made the booking with.
I think it would be a bit unfair to hold the Albanians responsible for him being an idiot.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. I retrospectively and unreservedly apologise, on behalf of LPDR, to the fine people of Albania - especially to all their car hire office workers.
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