BMA Productions of Montreal has produced this 2-CD set featuring 40 exciting folk melodies played by legendary Bulgarian accordionist Boris Karlov who died forty years ago aged 40. Karlov is recognized as the 'father' of Bulgarian accordion music and credited for being the first to develop a distinct technique and style for Bulgarian traditional music on the accordion. This anthology supervised by Yves Moreau was compiled from the archives of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), Balkanton Records and rare old 78's from the 1930's and 40's.
Boris Kar!ov was an unsurpassed accordion player with an exquisite and particularly beautiful tone, full of emotion. He was a musician with an iron sense of rhythm and brilliant technique who played Bulgarian folk melodies with an infectious musical sensitivity. He was the son of Karlo Aliev, a well-known Rom (Gypsy) musician who led a famous folk brass band based in Sofia in the 20's and 30's. At age 10, young Boris joined his father's band playing various instruments including the accordion which had been introduced in Bulgaria only a few years before. Karlov developed a unique style to transpose melodies usually played on traditional Bulgarian instruments such as gajda, gadulka and tambura and created a technique known as the "Karlov trill", still used today by such virtuoso accordionists as Petar Ralchev, Neshko Neshev and lean Milev. Boris Karlov died tragically during a concert in Yugoslavia in 1964.
The 32-page accompanying booklet contains historical and technical data written by Yves Moreau and Manol Todorov (in English, French, and Bulgarian) along with anecdotes and photographs. Moreau, a French-Canadian, was one of the first North Americans to travel throughout Bulgaria to collect songs and dances (he first went there in 1966 at the age of 17!). In recent years, BMA Productions released his 3-CD anthology of field recordings of Bulgarian village music, 'Beyond the Mystery' .
Manol Todorov, is a respected Bulgarian ethnomusicologist who has written several books on Bulgarian folk music. His mother was a professional folk singer who shared the stage many times with Boris Karlov.