Emir Kusturica & No Smoking Orchestra

The NO SMOKING band epitomize an unusual phenomenon that has found an entirely original way to express itself through a combination of all the musical genres known in the Balkans - a common heritage left behind by hordes of conquering armies following in one another's steps through the millennia.
Rock and roll still shows its influence in the way the band moves on stage and in their youthful emotional approach. But the core of the band's music takes its roots in the sedimented history of the Balkan region, seeping out through an explosive mix of jazz and Gypsy music - the energy unleashed by southern Serbian trumpets mixing admirably with the melancholy of lingering Asian melodies. Today, the NO SMOKING band is made up of musicians who are genuine virtuosos of the instruments they play, and it would be interesting to explain how they manage to work in sync, harmonizing their talents in a way that not even the football team of the former Yugoslavia was ever able to do. The most popular Yugoslav football players have always been hailed as champions, but when they played together on the national team they were not even able to make it through the first half-time of all-important matches.

With their chorus, the NO SMOKING band will tell an entirely different song from that of the Yugoslav national football team, for these are soloists who are at their best when they play as a group, generating a refreshingly original kind of music that is entirely their own.