Orkestar Kriminal

Orkestar Kriminal is a wildly and proudly eclectic band from Montreal that specializes in the traditional songs of Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East that emerged from the criminal underground and jails in the early 20th century. The songs all deal with gangs, smugglers, and other types of shady activities. They are in Yiddish, Greek, Hebrew, Russian, and any other language that the multilingual singer, ethnography enthusiast Giselle Claudia Webber can get her hands on. She also discovers and/or curates these songs and the band brings them to life using traditional instruments (sousaphone, clarinet, accordion, so on), probably pretty close to what they would have sounded like back in the day, except perhaps for a dash of punk affectation they might be mixing in to add a little contemporary spice. This is head-bopping slam-dancing uproarious music, rowdy and fully committed to the unending joys of criminal life.