Karpov not Kasparov (RO)

Local heros in their native Bucharest but also quite active musical tourists, Karpov not Kasparov have been carrying their instruments throughout Europe during the past four years, playing their very energetic live set in alternative venues from Berlin, Milano, Vienna, Florence, Hamburg, Basel, Torino, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Prague, Warsaw, Lille, Budapest etc. The duo began making music based on the rules and strategies of chess. It might seem complicated but the output is always a very danceable tune, sometimes with jazzy flavours, sometimes inspired by Oriental Folklore (because chess is an Oriental game) but always mixed with powerful 80's dance floor sounds. And wait! there's more to it than just the music. You might also see at their gigs ballet dancers or maybe some sort of theatrical performance, sometimes chess games played by the audience and other times the musicians play a live score for obscure silent films. Debut LP "Soundtrack for a Game of Chess" has been nominated 'album of the month' by Vice Magazine, declared one of the most valuable releases of the year by Radio Romania Cultural and Radio Europa Libera and aired online on New York radio WFMU. In 2015 this LP was pressed on vinyl at the boutique label PolychromeSounds (Berlin). The following album - The Vocal Edits (2016) is the most synth-pop and dance floor friendly to date and was released at the jazz label FiverHouse records. The album was featured in Tsugi.fr magazine, declared Best Romanian Electronic Release of 2016 by Scena9.ro and stamped "probably the best Romanian album of its genre in the last 30 years" by the journalists of musical blog Muzici&Faze.