Shantel

balkan

There are at least two artists under this name, including: 1. Shantel (Stefan Hantel) is a DJ and producer from Germany. He was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1968. After growing up in Frankfurt, he went to Paris to study graphic design. In 1991 he opened a club called Lissania Essay in the Frankfurt red light district. 2. A female R&B singer: http://www.myspace.com/shantelsvoice. The albums Arize (It's Time To Shine) and It's Over Now are hers. As the dance music scene continues to contract, many DJs are moving into the world music arena, looking for fresh sounds to take to the dancefloor. DJ Shantel is one such example. He cut his DJing teeth in Germany's techno scene but, noting how Gypsy brass orchestras Fanfare Ciocarlia and Boban Marković Orkestar could turn an audience into a wild, heaving mass, he believed that with a little electronic tweaking he could blend Balkan Gypsy tunes into his DJ set. Calling his Frankfurt DJ nights Bucovina Club, he attracted an audience well up for raving to heaving tubas and scalding trumpets. Some of the tunes were so naturally funky Shantel didn't need to add anything. Others he remixed, adding electronic beats and layering the horns on top. Word got around about his Bucovina Club nights and the remix album of the same name Shantel issued on his Essay Recordings label. Then Crammed Discs employed him (and several other DJs) to remix their Taraf De Haidouks and Kočani Orkestar recordings as Electric Gypsyland. The resulting album was ...