Blato Zlato (“Swamp Gold” in Bulgarian) is a New Orleans-based Balkan band featuring dreamy three-part vocal harmonies and hard-hitting instrumentals. The band performs folk and composed music from the Balkans, with a particular focus on Bulgarian songs and dark, original arrangements.
Miatalo Lenche Iabalka is their first music video. The song, whose title means “Lenche tossed an apple,” is a humorous Bulgarian folk tune about a girl named Lenche who throws an apple into the air and declares that whoever catches it is the person she will marry. Her plan goes awry when the wrong man catches the apple. Blato Zlato’s six band members enact all the parts of the story.
The video pays tribute to the genre of Bulgarian folkloric music videos, though it is set in the Louisiana swamp rather than on a Bulgarian mountainside.
The song is taken from their debut album Swamp Gold, which draws inspiration from the polyphonic vocal traditions and village-style dance tunes of the Balkans, infusing tradition with dark, dreamy, original arrangements and the sounds of the Louisiana swamp.
Blato Zlato were selected by NOVAC to film this video, which was funded by the Jazz and Heritage Foundation. It was directed by Cameron Wheeless and produced by Biliana Grozdanova.
The album is available for purchase through their website, iTunes, CDBaby, Bandcamp.Bandcamp.
Find out more here: http://www.blatozlato.com/