ABOUT BEYOND THE PALE
For over a decade Toronto’s Beyond the Pale has been making its distinctive brand of boundary-busting Eurofolk fusion. Mixing Klezmer, Balkan, and Romanian styles with an eclectic range of North American influences, the band members’ diverse musical and cultural backgrounds intersect in a shared impulse to push the boundaries of contemporary acoustic roots music into new realms. Their exuberant live performances range seamlessly from raucous dance rhythms to intricate chamber-folk dynamics, taking audiences on an invigorating musical ride with stunning virtuosity and thrilling arrangements. Beyond the Pale has performed at festivals, theatres, and clubs across Canada, the U.S., and Europe, including the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, NY’s famed Carnegie Hall, and the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland. The group will make its first tour to Australia in Spring 2011.
The group’s most recent CD “Postcards” (Borealis Records) showcases their characteristic versatility, traversing a vast and exotic musical landscape bound by no particular idiom but shaped by many. Like their first two CD releases, “Postcards” has received wide critical acclaim and a number of honours, including a leading four nominations and two wins from the 2010 Canadian Folk Music Awards (“Instrumental Ensemble of the Year” and “Pushing the Boundaries”). The band’s previous CD releases “Routes” and “Consensus” (Borealis Records, 2001 and 2004) also received honours from the Canadian Folk Music Awards, and the Canadian Independent Music Awards, Toronto Independent Music Awards and the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Songwriting Competition. In spring 2011 the band will release its next CD, featuring a daring program of reinterpretations of music by Mozart, originally commissioned by CBC radio.
Beyond the Pale features Bret Higgins (bass), Bogdan Djukic (percussion, violin), Aleksandar Gajic (violin, viola), Milos Popovic (accordion), Eric Stein (mandolin, mandocello, cimbalom), and Martin van de Ven (clarinets). They are frequently joined by such guests as NY’s Alex Kontorovich, Montreal’s Josh “SoCalled” Dolgin, and Israel’s Vira Lozinsky.
High-Res Photos
Band Members
