dZihan & Kamien

DZihan & Kamien first met while studying music in Vienna, the same city that brought us Mozart and Kruder & Dorfmeister. Vlado Dzihan had come from Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, where he was raised in a musical family. Kamien came from Switzerland, where he was born to German and Italian parents with Polish roots. Although both studied the classics, they were also drawn to the music of the Near East, especially the music of Turkey. Their shared interests led to their freeform mix of Arabic strings, elusive sampled vocals, and irresistable trip-hop rhythms.

In 1996, calling themselves MC Sultan, dZihan & Kamien scored their first European hit with "Der Bauch" ('The belly'), which later appeared on the influential Stoned Asia compilation. Their powerful East-meets-West sound was the first hint of what was to come four years later on Freaks & Icons, their first full-lengthed CD.

Freaks & Icons is the result of a long musical journey. "Over the years we've gone many times to Turkey to record our musician friends," says Kamien. "So we now have a library of percussion at different tempos on top of different grooves."

"For this record," adds Dzihan, "we produced about 60 percent of the album, and then we went to Turkey and recorded the live musicians on top. After that we took everything back to Italy, where we were working, and then started editing, resampling, and restyling everything."

On their latest release, Gran Riserva, dZihan & Kamien integrate more straight-ahead jazz into their mix, and focus more on song structure. —Courtesy Calabash Music