FOCUS Online 31st July 2007

Hubert von Goisern in interview

Hubert Achleitner, better known as Hubert von Goisern, has been travelling the Danube eastwards as a European ambassador of sound for a good month now, together with his band and crew. FOCUS Online met him in the Ukrainian delta, just before the point where the European river runs into the Black Sea.

Tanned deep brown, he sits on deck the MSS Josef Wallner in his dark sunglasses. The night was short and at first Achleitner speaks very quietly. But in the course of the conversation he comes ever more alive. They are the wild gestures of a person who stands on stage a great deal. The energy which has taken the musician from the Salzkammergut halfway around the world in past years is palpable.

You have travelled far and wide, to Asia and Africa. Only now are you discovering a region that lies geographically closer. Must one first leave in order to return?

As a young man I thought: you can do everything that lies closer later on. I went as far away as possible. Life is a spiral: you come ever closer to what you are looking for.

What are you looking for on this journey, with which you wish to draw attention to the unity and variety of European culture?

I am looking for adventure. Not as a voyeur, but for myself. I prefer that. I don't like following paths, certainly not always the same ones. And I like situations where I am forced to keep all my senses awake. That is the case with so many new impressions.

Nevertheless you always see the new while taking the folk music of the alpine region with you. What does tradition mean to you?

It is like a rucksack that we carry through life. For some people it is very heavy and so they don't manage to move forwards. As a youth I also noticed that I had been given something quite wonderful to carry and at some point I began to unpack it and clear it out. If the rucksack is full, nothing more will fit inside.

How do the musicians whom you are meeting on the Linz Europe Tour deal with tradition?

I have found brothers and sisters in spirit - a wonderful affirmation. You often imagine that you are the only one to have discovered the philosopher's stone and others have not. Then you are amazed to find that others have the stone too. I like that.

Over the course of these three months you will play with more than 100 colleagues, having little time to rehearse. What feelings do you have standing on stage?

It is all between panic and exploding. I sometimes feel I'm dissolving into my atoms. I'm trying to take everything and give everything out at the same time. You have to let what is happening happen.

Would you have thought that your yodelling and the Carpathian ska of the Ukrainian bands would go together so well?

Yes, at least with the all the polka pieces. But of course there is no certainty that it will always work so well.

One gets the impressions at the concerts that the Balkans are particularly full of energy. Is that just a cliché?

No, there is a tradition of that here. This cha-cha-cha-cha (he balls his fist, underscoring the rhythm with his forearm), I like it when it goes completely offbeat: mta-mta-mta! In our music it's all right on the beat, bum-bum-bum, so that people can clap along and know what they're doing: dei-didi-dadam .. (he sings, claps, laughs, swaying his torso to the rhythm)

What has happened in the month in which the musicians and crew have been on board?

We have gained self-confidence and trust that what is happening is valid and has integrity. The experience of sliding down the Danube is unbelievable. The river exerts a gentle force from which you cannot escape. Of course this project is exhausting in many ways. But we are becoming ever stronger, and with the strength comes calmness.

Are you happy with the response?

It's getting better and better. Croatia was our first stop in the east. I was taken aback by the lack of interest, particularly from those who were meant to put together the local infrastructure. I interpret it with the trauma of war. One doesn't have the courage to build anything as there was shooting only shortly before. It was one of the most moving concerts, playing in front of 350 people between shot ruins and burned tree stumps.

You once said: "I won't play Hiatamadl any more". But now you are doing so?

I said that I didn't know when I would play it again. I played that and other songs so often and I don't like things to become mechanical. I need distance to let something new develop. Now I have that.

You are offering a kind of "best of" for the first time. Why?

The people here don't know me and I want to introduce myself to them. We have a three hour programme and are playing about an hour and a half of it. So I can decide relatively spontaneously what suits the ambience. Yesterday (the concert with Haydamaky and Zdob si Zdub) more ballads would have been out of place. The people were electrified.

Are you still nervous when you have to appear after the local matadors' act?

Every time you begin a yodel it is a jump from the 10-metre board into the water at night.You have no idea how you're going to come up. But so far it has always worked out well.

Sandra Zistl

Salzburger Nachrichten 31st July 2007

Hubert von Goisern and his band have arrived in the poor outback of the Danube delta:
a report from almost the furthest point that the Linz Europe Tour will reach.

Photo: SN / Zeitenspiegel

At night, when the music is played, the stage ship and the water of the Danube around it sparkle. Lights and screens that fill every stadium with sound beam across southern Ukraine.

Technical extravagance and logistical endeavours meet with the outback of a nation that has been painfully trying to find itself after 16 years independence from the Soviet Union. After Russia, the Ukraine is the biggest country in Europe in terms of area. The economic strengths are distributed with according difficulty. In Kiev revolutions take place, prosperity smokes from chimneys, international banks do business. However in the southeastern corner of the oblast of Odessa time stands still, although it is not quiet. Souped-up cars from the west roar. Coca Cola, mobile phones, cheap disco music and satellite TV have already won. But otherwise you hardly meet any winners.

The Venice of the Ukraine, a village in the middle of nowhere

"Our politicians concern themselves with the Crimea, with the capital," says Iwanka, who runs a food shop in the 8000 inhabitant village of Vilkovo, called "Venice of the Ukraine" thanks to its (flood) waterways. Her husband commutes a good 1000 kilometres to work in Doneszk - she sees him once a month. In five years the Ukraine will play host to the European Cup football with Poland. Donezk will be one of the locations. Here in Vilkovo as much will be seen of it as in Bad Goisern: one will turn on the TV. Only here it is not certain whether there will be electricity.

The moon is the same here as there. In these cloudless days it is following the Goisern tour as an observer. With an effortless and kitsch beauty it serves as a symbol of connection free from boundaries, indeed solidarity. On board the ship one must work harder for this connection between musical styles and ways of living.

He is looking for musicians who looked for the same thing as he did, Hubert von Goisern says at a press conference in Ismail, explaining the artistic and human desires of the tour. It is late afternoon. In the evening around 6000 of the 79,000 citizens of the town will watch the concert in the harbour.

That evening the people come not only to see the Goiserer. They come for Zdob si Zdub and Haydamaky. The two bands have achieved hero status in the region with their mix of ethno and rock. The Moldovans Zdob si Zdub are particularly celebrated, being led by the charismatic Roman Iagupov, who seems like a brother of U2's Bono, or Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in his ability to capture the audience. The party-fit "Zdobsis" are comparable with the style of Californian rock stars, with their dynamic, at times hammering and then once more balladic sounds. In 2005 they took part in the Eurovision Song Contest. There were plans to do that again this year - and with Hubert von Goisern. Nothing came of it. What remained was a joint version of Koa Hiatamadl, which rocks more intensely than ever before. This is also down to the pleasure the musicians take in each other. Here the sense of the Linz Danube Tour undertaking becomes apparent too: music as a uniting element, as a convergence of worlds. This approach works ideally with Haydamaky too. Hubert von Goisern starts to gush as he talks about the time with the Roma brass band Karandila, who were on board a few days before.

And yet the approach to folk music is very different here. At home the Goiserer had to fight it once more out of the hands of the protectors. In Moldova and the Ukraine traditional music formed the regional identities of the individual states during the time of the Soviet Union. "Folk was an act of resistance for our fathers," says Haydamaky singer Sascha. Enriching it with elements of pop now on the one hand serves the popularisation of tradition and is simultaneously a countermotion to the monopolisation of folk by growing nationalistic tendencies.

In Vilkovo such political background barely plays a role. Around a quarter of the community is on their feet. At the market there has been no other topic of conversation than the arrival of the ship, says Ivanka. At the end of the evening she is dancing with one of the four policemen there for security. In contrast to Ismail, cold beer is prepared. There is also no VIP area erected by the local nomenklatura. If something happens here, everyone has to go.

A day later peace returns to the ship - and after nearly 40 days on board, routine too. It is broken on the way from Ismail to Vilkovo. 25 journalists come on board, flown in by sponsor Red Bull. This approach follows the laws of the industry. In quickly. Recording equipment and camera brandished. Away. And at the same time having the fortunes of witnessing a little of the way in which both the political and musical ideas of the tour are realised. Here in the outback, the message of the river being a unifying power, as a "symbol of freedom" as Zdobsi singer Iagupoc puts it, is understood well. And here - even if more to the familiar sounds of the local bands than to the foreign, alpine sounds of the Goiserer troupe - parties are celebrated. There is little time for silent reflection during these two days.

The beauty of the forthcoming river kilometres

The ship offers little room for retreat, which could be filled with the emotional charge of impressions that accumulate on a long journey. Collecting, that works, although he "sometimes feels like a bottomless barrel", says Hubert von Goisern. And evaluating? Organising? Filing away? Every statement can only be a snapshot of fresh, unsorted feelings, the Goiserer says, a snapshot that is replaced the next day with the next band, the next river kilometre, the beauty or the bureaucratic hurdles of the next town. Another 18 kilometres until the Black Sea, where the Danube ends, where the "Wallsee" will drop anchor at Vilkovo and where the northern edge of the delta is formed - and, since Romania's accession to the EU, a barely surmountable barrier for Ukrainians (the official way).

Captain Peter Werner observes the tour euphorically. "Whoever comes towards us radios us," he says. There are congratulations for the idea, for seeing through this insanity. And many ask whether what they have heard is correct, that a ship convoy is travelling along to give concerts at places that are neither on the tourist stretch, nor are they trading posts.

Vilkovo symbolises the crossing into No-Man's Land. Those who come this far with the ship go straight to Sulina. There stands the lighthouse where the Danube begins. It is the only river split into kilometres upstream. There is where the music will play in two days.

Bernhard Flieher

Photo: SN / Zeitenspiegel

Der Standard 31st July 2007

Hubert von Goisern made a stop in the Ukraine during his musical exploration of the Danube for the "Linz Europe Tour" project for Linz 2009

Ukraine - In response to the question of whether vision and reality meet halfway having been on the ship for a month, Hubert von Goisern answers pragmatically on the journey between the Ukrainian venues of Ismail and Vilkovo near the Danube delta: "Exactly so, entirely different. Inside it tastes the way I dreamed, but in cooking the crust hasn't come out as planned."

At the end of June Goisern set off from Wallsee in Lower Austria with an 80-metre-long, 350 tonne ship convoy. As the main project for Capital of Culture Linz 2009 he is travelling the Danube eastwards to the delta in summer 2007 in the framework of a Linz Europe Tour. In a second part in 2008 he will musically explore the waterways to the west, all the way up to Amsterdam. And along the way he and his band are trying on the ship's stage in particular to engage in dialogue with local musicians at each of the stops on the journey.

While in oppressive heat the ship passes rundown lignite harbours and wild and rampantly-growing wetlands, Goisern tells of his impressions from the journey so far. The good 40 people on board (ship personnel, Goisern's band, a film team, the musicians who have just joined them from the Ukrainian band Haydamaky ...) are all trying to politely get into the shade at the same time.

Goisern says that the collaboration between the bands along the Danube has not always worked as well as it did yesterday in front of a well and truly enthusiastic audience of 5000 in the charming, desolate industrial town of Ismail. On the one hand von Goisern enthuses about the exchange over several days with the wild gypsy brass band Karandila in Bulgaria. But previously the communication with the artists invited on board in Croatia proved to be a disaster. From an organisational standpoint too.

Hubert von Goisern: "You always need two to talk. And if there is too little self-confidence on the other side and so too little willingness to start in a dialogue, you have to leave it. We only had disinterest and lethargy to deal with there - aside from the soundcheck and concert, the musicians were then looking for the wild excuses to simply not come on board the ship and turned down opportunities to play together. And the local organiser had neither put up the posters he had been sent, nor informed the press."

The green bullet

A few hundred kilometres downstream in Ismail everything works quite splendidly in contrast. In the afternoon von Goisern was welcomed there by the mayor, who presented him with the green bullet of the city and greeted him with a speech that was as flowery as it was long. During this one learned of the merits of the local wood pulping factory and the universal power of music.

Zdob si Zdub, who come from neighbouring Moldova and who are seen as superstars in the Ukraine and Russia thanks to their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, made sure with a rousing concert in the late evening, that Hubert von Goisern's alpine rock sound was subsequently taken up by the audience. Somewhere between a little disconcerted to amused during the yodel passages particularly, but grateful nevertheless.

The technique practised by Zdob si Zdub of combining regional folk music instruments, melodies and dances with rock 'n' roll, hip hop and hard metal guitars in a commercially-appealing manner, as well as tweaking the passionately-loved reggae and ska that they interpret "in the east" as polka, is after all not dissimilar to Hubert von Goisern's approach.

As a joint performance of Hiatamadl shows at the end of the concert, that with rock 'n' roll it is all about what is certainly the greatest of all tools of communication between cultures, aside from the current achievements in the form of Die Hard 4.0, which is being heavily promoted at Hollywood cinemas in the Ukraine too.

Ferocious yodelling here, wild Cossack shouting there: aside from language, the different popular approaches in the regional cultures between Bad Goisern and Odessa form only the ever decreasing sugary crust of a form of musical expression that may no longer exist in 20 years beyond the heritage societies held by the older generation.

Hubert von Goisern may suspect this too. Nonetheless he has worked intensively for years and with substantial use of his own funds on undertaking this journey. Four million Euros is the price of "possibly the last adventure that can exist in Europe". A third of this is being contributed by the Capital of Culture 2009, a third comes from main sponsor Red Bull, a third Goisern has raised himself. He is hoping for the successful marketing of a film to be produced during the journey, with a subsequent DVD release.

A day later the ship is welcomed in Vilkovo, known as the "Venice of the East" - which seems a little heady as the tiny channels are dried up in the summer - by youth dance group from Odessa, which includes the local cultural commissary. He gives Goisern a media box brought from Vienna as part of a school exchange programme. Friendship of nations, music is the greatest power. Europe must come together. Good things. And so on.

At the end of the ladder

Shortly before Sascha, the singer from the rock band Haydamaky, who are loved in the Ukraine, martial on stage and melancholy in private, put on the record that together with Portugal the Ukraine is at the lower end of the chicken coop ladder. Bad luck for those who have to live here. A lot of water still has to flow down the Danube for things to consolidate that have not yet managed to do so.

The whole town is then on its feet deep into the night at the harbour for the concert from Haydamaky and Hubert von Goisern. One hears the yodels carried across the water as news of a future, hopefully better world. Hubert von Goisern has no homesickness today for what is familiar to him: "No, I don't miss the mountains from home. The mountains are here. Over past centuries they all washed ashore here in the Danube delta anyway."

Christian Schachinger

Kurier 30th July 2007

Hubert von Goisern on the Linz Europe Tour

The aeroplane is younger than I am. And in much better shape. The piston engines of the 4-propellor DC 6, built in 1958, oldtimer crowning jewel of the fleet belonging to soft drink company Red Bull carries us the large cemetery to the runway at Odessa.

During the four-hour bus journey out into the sticks in the Danube delta, the Ukrainian landscape looks a little like Hungary in the 1960s. Without Lake Balaton. But instead with Hubert von Goisern.

He has now arrived at the Black Sea on the "Linz Europe Tour 2007" - part of the programme for the Capital of Culture year. The alpine rocker has fulfilled what was for him "still a distant dream two years ago": to travel down the Danube with a ship full of music.

Adventure

The European river tour is by far the most exciting thing he has done, says von Goisern. The musical varied journey on the water "is perhaps one of the last really great adventures on this continent." "I haven't seen anything as ambitious and large-scale as this in 20 years of working," acknowledges lighting engineer Hans Duchan.

For the mammoth undertaking that has been budgeted as costing 4 million Euros a former cargo ship, 77 metres long, was fitted out with a hydraulically adjustable stage, together with light and sound equipment, its own power supply and two LED walls. Also on board: kitchen, storehouse and living containers. And a white bath is enthroned on the deck of the barracks ship, right next to the satellite dish.

The sun slowly sets over the bulbous spires of the little church next to the harbour in Ismail, down in the harbour thousands of people are waiting with excitement, while on the deck of the "showboat" at the quayside the soundcheck for the musical eastwards expansion is still going on.

Force

The explosive brew of the Ukrainian band Haydamaky is then rooted in folk, taking from punk and reggae too. Zdob si Zdub from Moldova are no less brilliant, before Hubert von Goisern takes to the stage after midnight with his new band raps to polka wit the full force of rock and elevates a yodel to an anthem.

There has never been anything like this. No, here where Europe frays at its outermost edge, people have never seen anything like this. Duchan: "And the people are unbelievably grateful." In fact: In Vilkovo, the last town before the mouth of the Danube, also known with affectionate hyperbole as the "Venice of the East", the concert affects the local people like the landing of extra-terrestrials.

The fact that in the course of its history the region has belonged to Russia, Turkey and Romania is reflected in the architecture. And in the music.

And the fact that it is not only in theory a uniting element beyond stereotypical folklore and varying cultural characteristics is proved by von Goisern to the guests and to the onlookers who are often in the mood for dancing at each of the two dozen concert stops along the banks of the Danube.

"Music serves the friendship of nations." The interpreter translates the message for the site. "When friendships develop and grow, the same way that a stone thrown into the water will send out ripples, then this continent will also grow closer."

Text and photos: Werner Rosenberger

OÖN 30th July 2007

Photo: Rainer Kwiotek/Zeitenspiegel

Half-time on the first leg of Hubert von Goisern's Linz Europe Tour - the OÖN visited the musical ambassador for the Capital of Culture 2009 during his encounters in the Ukrainian Danube delta.

Meetings often mean tribulations. For three and a half hours the bus rumbles along a brittle, bumpy stretch of asphalt from the Black Sea city of Odessa, through a flat region, through villages that line the roads. Farming families squat on the dusty verge, offering tomatoes, cucumbers and melons from crates and boxes - everything that comes from the earth.

37 days after the 350-tonne ship was sent off from the Brandner dockyard in Wallsee with the old rafting expression "Lasst aus, in Gottes Namen!", the 76.5 metre long floating colossus is anchored in front of the harbour building in Ismail.

Captains and folk music

At a press conference the mayor reads from his notes, speaking of "pride, that our city is connected to world-famous captains" and praises the wood pulp industry. Finally he comes to the "universal language of music", which is needed "where no politicians find a common language.". And to "Mr Goisern" the city leader extends his gratitude for "spreading folk music and strengthening the friendships between European countries."

Meetings occur. As the sun sets red into the water, about 5000 people flood onto the river bank, chiefly to see their bands. The Ukrainian combo Haydamaky play the flute in reggae style, squeeze a ska accordion, drum on a dulcimer. Singer Sascha likes Hubert's approach to living European variety as a unity. "His music," he says, "contains good things, namely a love for his homeland".

The charismatic Roman leads Zdob si Zdub from Moldova, a mood-maker, stirring, rousing party rock. Together with the cultural unifier from Goisern, they drive a fantastic "Hiatamadl" to the shore. Although the crowd thins a little later, nobody understands the gstanzls like "In Palästina schiaßns a scho wieda, i hoit des nimma aus und sauf mi nieda" ("In Palestine they're shooting again, I can't take it and drink myself into oblivion") - the people dance wildly, cheering, and become quiet and thoughtful when the quiet music starts.

Here is where the idea of the Linz Europe Tour pans out - giving music to the people, forming friendships, tearing down boundaries in people's minds. They search for feeble excuses not to have to go on board. After the concert they do sit together in the "village square" on the barge, "but they only talked among themselves". It didn't help singing the Burgenland-Croatian song they had learned from Willi Resetarits. "Please, just no tonalities," the guests refused.

Unfamiliar contact

In the tranquil Ukrainian town of Vilkovo the docking of the musical boat triggers a familiar mass migration. In the afternoon a bus from Odessa approaches with the cultural commissaries, who welcome the Linz ambassador with a folk performance by a youth group. A plump woman sways in rhythm, people on little motor boats abandon themselves to the unfamiliar sounds, which touch them nonetheless.

Early on Saturday morning the 750 horsepower "MS Wallsee" will push the stage and living ship into the middle of the river to continue the concert journey upstream on the Danube, finishing the first stage of the tour with a concert on 1st September in Linz. An encounter you should get involved in.

Bernhard Lichtenberger

OÖN 30th July 2007

The OÖN spoke to Hubert von Goisern in a shady corner of the ship convoy, on the journey along the Danube between Ismail and Vilkovo.

Photo: Rainer Kwiotek/Zeitenspiegel

How has it gone with the groups so far?

There's so little self-confidence there. You have to feel confident for a meeting. I think it's a thing of trauma and I don't blame them at all. We needed more time. But pretty slowly we're winning trust in our efforts to break through.

Have musicians you've invited on board reacted to the Tibetan prayer flags that decorate the "village square" on the ship?

One of the members of the Ukrainian band Haydamaky told me that he was a Buddhist. He wanted to know which branch I belonged to. I told him 'none', I'm still a mosquito-killer.

How do you feel about the fact that the regional bands are the real main act for the audience?

With age come a kind of wisdom that you really have to withdraw in such situations. We are hosts and are giving the others everything we have. It wouldn't do at all if we were to appear as the most important and the best.

You can't communicate with the audience with language...

It's really terrible for me that I can't speak to the people, it's a test. You really have to manage with the music.

At home there is constantly the same question: what does this all have to do with Linz?

They should think about it, meditate on it and not constantly demand answers. If you can't imagine it, it's no use trying to explain it either. It's envy and envy is a pain.

Bernhard Lichtenberger

Info-Prim Neo 28th July 2007

Interview with the Austrian musician Hubert von Goisern and Zdob si Zdub's lead Roman Iagupov

The Austrian musician Hubert von Goisern is the initiator of the Linz Europa Tour 2007-2009 project which plans to bring together musicians from different countries crossed by the Danube. The artists board a ship, where they live and create shoulder to shoulder; from time to time they drop anchor in one of the 20 harbours along the Danube, transform the ship into a stage equipped with advanced sound systems, lights and monitors and get the show started.

They reached the harbour of Ismail on July 26. The show featuring the famous Zdubs was also attended by Info-Prim Neo's reporter.

It takes a lot of courage to start such a project. How did you make up your mind to take so much responsibility?

Hubert von Goisern: The project is an old dream of mine and nobody believed in its success in the beginning. I have been working a lot, and now I see it coming true. We got onboard the ship and set sail downstream the Danube. The main goal of our project is to meet with musicians from different countries and different cultures so as to enable the desired exchange of experience. We started our journey on June 22 from Vienna and we anchored in Melk and Passau, Orsova, Braila, and Galati (Romania), some cities along the Danube in Bulgaria, and then we’ll return to Romania – Tulcea and Sulina. Next on the list are Budapest, Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Bratislava. We will end this summer with a concert in Linz (Austria). For the next summer we will set sail for the cities upstream from Linz, until we reach the North Sea. The whole project will end in 2009 with a mega-show in Linz, Europe’s cultural capital, which is going to bring together all the bands involved in the project. This way we intend to enlarge eastward the cultural partnership of the regions along the 2889 kilometre long river. Music has always been a uniting element that knows no bounds, and cultural connections can lead to a better understanding between peoples.

Roman Iagupov: The music freed Hubert and he is now sharing his freedom with other people. We interacted a lot. We had rehearsals together and we even played together. For us the Danube is a natural phenomenon which shouldn't be affected because of the civilisation, neither should it have borders along it. The Danube needs to be free. Music is a language that everyone can understand, no matter where they are from. Music should travel with no visas, no borders and without being stopped by barbed wire. I am tired of borders, of having to explain who I am, where I am going, who I want to sing for; I am tired of the stamps in the passport and of everything that limits people's freedom.

Hubert von Goisern: The way Europe lives and its attempt to unify is very important, exciting and even amusing. However, compared to the US, Europe is more ethnically and culturally diverse and it has more traditions. That is why it is obvious that in its aspiration for unification each country must keep its own culture. Nobody has the right to give away their principles, their traditions and their dignity as a people. The culture has to maintain peace among peoples. To be able to accept this musical diversity as one would be a great achievement.

Has anyone before tried to implement a project of this kind?

Hubert von Goisern: During the last 10 years there have been 15 attempts to realise a project like this, but it is not easy to create a project as big as this one. Apparently I was really lucky to go on with this project. In the 60s and 70s there was a project similar to this one, but it wasn't as great and it had a different purpose.

How did you choose the bands to play in the concert?

Hubert von Goisern: We went through two research steps in order to select the bands. Firstly we chose the bands that I liked the most, which have the same vibes as I do. I didn't make the choice based on logics or strategies, I just followed my heart. It was important to reach good communication so that we can collaborate in the future. Another requirement was that the band be from a place along the itinerary of our ship.

How did the people receive you where you went?

Hubert von Goisern: Oh, I have very nice impressions. This event was worth the effort even if there were a couple of towns that didn't impress me much and that I don't want to remember. Everything has been going very well and I am glad that I took this adventure.

What attracted you to this project?

Roman Iagupov: The project is phenomenal by itself. I think that there is a lot of room for improvement in the show business in Eastern Europe. There aren't too many valuable performances produced in Moldova, Ukraine or Romania. The best shows happen in the rest of Europe. Though there are a few shows like that around here, they are popular mostly from the commercial perspective. Hubert's project made me feel like a musician who can communicate artistically with other valuable musicians, who can accomplish his artistic potential within important cultural projects. This is how experience exchange happens; this is how we can feel the spirit of freedom, the spirit of Europe and the spirit of a high culture. And that's the most important thing. I am bored of participating in mechanical concerts where you cannot learn anything, and where you don't feel any spiritual satisfaction or artistic fulfilment. We have just started our collaboration. We intend to create some songs together and one video clip to leave to those who come behind us. A modern combination of the Austrian folk with the Romanian folk could generate a pretty interesting result. We will achieve something that even the politicians don't manage to get.

What else are you working on apart for the concerts for the "Linz Europa Tour 2007-2009" project?

Roman Iagupov: We actually have very many concerts, most of them open air. The next week we will go to B'ESTIVAL, in Romania. We also have concerts in Ukraine, Russia, Romania and we will start our tour through Germany soon. We are travelling all the time. We would like a break when we could go to our studio and record some new songs, but our tour schedule is very busy, and we don't have time for that right now. We hope that we will be able to record at least the song that we created with Hubert von Goisern.

That was an impressive collaboration. How long did you work for the song?

Roman Iagupov: In March Hubert spent 5 days with us and this is when everything began. We also had a few rehearsals before concerts. Everything worked out that well because we planned everything.

In fact the Zdubs played a couple of songs together with Hubert. Among them there was Miorita (a song from the band's repertoire), one song of the Osoianu Sisters which was performed by the girls in Hubert von Goisern's band and one song from the Austrian band's repertoire.

Aren't you tired of travelling this much? Aren't you tired of the tour?

Hubert von Goisern: No, I am not tired. People and music give us so much energy that we don't have time to get tired. It is good to be resonant; otherwise people might think that you are not enjoying what you are doing. In different places people have different mentalities and they react differently. I am glad that I have been with these musicians for 6 weeks already, that we are travelling on the Danube and it has some sort of purifying energy. The Danube scares away the bad spirits and keeps us in a good mood.

Roman Iagupov: Here is where I understood that love and freedom are not myths and that they really exist. Hubert has a unique philosophy, and the more I talk to him, the more I realise these truths. Life is not only difficult, with a lot of problems; I saw the beautiful side of life too. This interaction with Hubert has been a very good experience for me. 

www.moldova.net 27th July 2007

More photos at www.moldova.net

www.ruse-news.com 19th July 2007

More photos at www.ruse-news.com