We'll be savoring a taste of the iarba Fiarelor (Beasts' Grass) at the LA PAS Festival 2023 - songs and Calusari dances, tribal dances with centaurs, mantras with howling and rituals, haiduc ballads, maiden songs, solar dances, laments of relief, and songs of longing, genres distilled through the myths & folklore of ethnicities. All of these can be found in the repertoire of the iarba Fiarelor band, who will be taking the stage at LA PAS this year, at the "Corneliu Miklosi" Public Transport Museum in Timișoara.
The group's style, launched in 2018, has been described as progressive-ethno-rock. Cristian Chiriac, the project's initiator, composer of the melodic lines, and lyricist, describes another aspect of traditional music - in which the band approaches instruments and pseudo instruments unconventionally, incorporating vocals and techniques such as knot whistling to tribal Euro-Indian rhythms, preserved in the form of dances and body percussion, such as tropotita (jungle, drum ‘n bass) and bătuta (punk), as well as preumblata, legănata, and others. He playfully dubs the style tribe-hop/feral-folk/rare-metal/post-ethnic and states that "the traditional music of the Iarba Fiarelor is a young foal born in the wild from old parents born in captivity."
The "iarba" in the name "iarba Fiarelor," written with a lowercase "i" and an uppercase "F," refers to both the creatures of the forests and the metallic beasts.
In mythology, the Beasts' Grass is a mysterious plant that unlocks locks. Legend has it that you can understand the language of animals if you possess this miraculous plant and that it grants you supernatural powers.
iarba Fiarelor’s first studio album, "Desculț" (Barefoot), which delves into its own aura of ancient Romanian genres such as the doina, haiduc and war songs, maiden songs, dance songs, songs of longing, and folk ballads, was released in 2020. In June 2023, the band's second album, "Slobod," was released, conceived to represent a sort of out-of-place new age, an evolution of folk and/or popular music that Romania had not had the opportunity to experience in its proper time, concurrently with other cultures.
Listen to iarba Fiarelor on October 13-15, 2023, at the LA PAS Festival - Artisanal Gastronomy Festival!