LUMINESCENT ORCHESTRII IS: Romanian gypsy melodies, punk frenzy, salty tangos, hard-rocking klezmer, haunting Balkan harmony, hip-hop beats and Appalachian fiddle, all eaten and spit out by two violins, resophonic guitar, bullhorn harmonica and bass.

The members of the Orchestrii come from different scenes in New York City, yet come together through their love of Balkan and Gypsy music. Sxip Shirey is an international circus composer, Sarah Alden is an old-time fiddle player, Rima Fand is an experimental theater composer, and Benjy Fox-Rosen is a free-jazz bassist. It is not uncommon to find Sxip playing tampon applicators with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Rima composing music for a Lorca puppet show, Benjy schlepping his bass to a jazz gig, or Sarah fiddling away at some all-night old-time session.

Since 2002, when the band was formed, the Luminescent Orchestrii has toured the East Coast, England, Scotland, and Germany, and have traveled to Romania, Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia for inspiration. They most recently returned from Serbia’s Dragočevo Trumpet Festival, a 47-year-old festival that takes place in the small town of Guča, where hordes of competing gypsy brass bands take to the streets and restaurants.

“The balancing of frenzy and finesse is evidently a trademark Luminescent Orchestrii approach, displayed to its utmost in the insanely frenetic dance tunes… The three violins flirt willfully with a cacophony teasingly offset by elegant classical flourishes, swirling and eddying above the rhythm section’s bruisingly aggressive but sharply-aimed attack.” —The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland)