Traktorkestar - Profile

Traktorkestar are a brass band from Berne, Switzerland. They were founded in 2008 by trumpeter Balthasar Streit and are all musicians of Swiss origin. Fixed on the Balkan brass sound that Streit discovered while on a trip in the former Yugoslavia, he started the band with the idea of fusing music from the Balkans with the Swiss treasury of songs.

The band released their first 7’’ vinyl single “Agrarian Notes & Urban Groovz” in 2009, which contains an interpretation of the Berne folk song “Vreneli ab em Guggisberg”. That same year, the band played for the first time at the Guca festival in Serbia. Their performance was acclaimed by both the audience and the Serbian press alike. In the years following, the band repeatedly returned to the festival.

In 2010, their debut album “Iz Duše” was released. The album contains several tracks featuring guitarist and singer Miso Petrovic of Mostar Sevdah Reunion from Bosnia. The track “One Gypsy Reggae” was composed by Miso Petrovic himself. Together with Petrovic, Traktorkestar also made a concert tour throughout Switzerland.

Their second album entitled “Scharf Extra” came out in 2012. On it one can hear for the first time songs in the Swiss dialect. In addition to the renditions of Balkan songs, the album contains more compositions by the band. At the beginning of 2014, their third studio album “Les Mémoires d’Un Trottoir” was released. It features several tracks with Swiss accordionist and folk music composer Thomas Aeschbacher. On the album is also a song Traktokestar recorded with rapper Steff La Cheffe from Berne and Gypsy Queen Esma Redzepova.

After an extensive concert tour through Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France in 2014, the Traktorkestar released another highly acclaimed album called "Deafening Lullabies" in 2016. The following year the Traktorkestar gave a concert together with Swiss music legend Stephan Eicher for the first time. The concert was so well received that further concerts were announced for 2018 in this constellation.

Members:

Balthasar Streit

Samuel Würgler

Gregor Krtschek

Simeon Schwab

Thierry Luethy

Stefan Hodel

Maro Widmer

Matthias Baumann

Philippe Ducommun

Fabian Hänni

Samuel Zingg