 Taarka is (l-r) Enion Pelta-Tiller on 5-string violin, David Tiller on mandolin, Daniel Plane on bass and Troy Robey on cello. All the members take turns on vocals or harmonizing together. Photo courtesy of Taarka Special to The Inyo Register
10-23-2008 Emerging from a long tradition of gypsy circus troubadours come the solar-powered travelers and carriers of a new musical light known as Taarka.
The acclaimed, eclectic quartet is bringing its brand of indie-gypsy-folk-rock-world music infusion to the Inyo Council for the Arts for a special concert tonight at 7 p.m.
According to ICA Executive Director Lynne Cooper, Taarka is no stranger to the Eastern Sierra, nor should music lovers here be unfamiliar with the group’s eclectic, hard-to-pin-down sound.
“They played at the Millpond Music Festival in 2007, and are on a tour right now and called us to say they’d be passing through the area and asked if we wanted them to play a concert,” Cooper explained. “Of course we said we’d love to have them back.”
In addition to tonight’s performance at the ICA in Bishop, Taarka will again be taking time out of its schedule to visit one of the schools in the area.
Cooper said the county is lucky to have the band back so soon, and noted that concert-goers can expect quite show.
“They’re a young, fun band,” she said.
As noted on the group’s Web site, Taarka is the culmination of the new millennial, sonic adventures of David Tiller (mandolin, tenor guitar, vocals), Enion Pelta-Tiller (five string violin, vocals), Daniel Plane (cello, vocals) and Troy Robey (bass, vocals). The band members are a virtuosic cadre of string performers who have roamed the freeways and back roads of the new and old acoustic caravan trail in search of a revolutionary ancient sound for modern times. While the four musicians have individually been spreading song and tune over the aural superhighway since the last century, their collaborative intersection marks a new era of Taarkan tune-smithing.
Taarka is set to release their fourth album, featuring the fantastic new line-up, a guest appearance by superstar fiddler Casey Driessen and a collection of beautifully written and arranged songs and original instrumentals swimming the gamut of indie-gypsy chamber folk.
What is Taarka? While meaning many things in many tongues to many peoples, the musical Taarka of hails from Lyons, Colo. and performs a patented and irreplaceable blended evolution of Western and Eastern folk traditions of jazz, rock, bluegrass, old-time, gypsy Indian and Celtic music interpreted through the highly capable ears and hands of four of today’s top classically trained, eclectic-acoustic music pioneers.
Collectively and individually, members of Taarka have shared stages with members of the Grateful Dead, Phish, and String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, Darol Anger, Joe Craven, Animal Liberation Orchestra, Keller Williams, Mike Marshall, Danny Barnes, Leftover Salmon, Steve Kimock, Garaj Mahal, Widespread Panic, The Samples, Colonel Bruce Hampton and Aquarium Rescue Unit, Kevin Mohagoney, Kaki King, Drew Emmit Band, Rob Wasserman and Tony Furtado.
For more information on tonight’s concert, or ticket prices, call the ICA at (760) 873-8014.
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