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Sample Track 1:
"Hora Lui Sile" from Sounds from a Bygone Age, Vol. 1
Sample Track 2:
"Briu Din Oltenita" from Sounds from a Bygone Age, Vol. 1
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Sounds from a Bygone Age, Vol. 1
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Global Hit

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The World, Global Hit >>

Today's Global Hit involves a tale of espionage from the cold war itself. The plot features an American spy, a Romanian violinist, and an unusual reward.

The World's Helen Barrington has the debrief. German record producer Henry Ernst is a sleuth. And a relentless one.

In 1986, Ernst was traveling through Transylvania. In a small-town record store he came across an unusual recording. It was an album of music featuring a band led by violinist Ion Petre Stoican. Ernst became captivated by the music and set out to discover the story behind it.

It's a story that begins sometime in the mid 1960s. Stoican was performing with a group of musicians when he saw something that caught his eye. "He noticed a man who seemed to be suspect."

Record producer Henry Ernst. "And this stranger tried to hide a parcel so Stoican was playing with his band at an outside terrace and had a good view on him."So Stoican grabbed the man and took him to a police station.

Ernst: "Very, very soon the Secret Service found out that this person was a spy working for the USA in this time. The chief of the Romanian Secret Service called Stoican to the police station again to tell him that he's now a kind of hero of the People's Republic of Romania."

Stoican was offered a reward of a car or a house. Ernst: "But Stoican said, 'No I don't need a house I don't want a car I only want to make a record.'"

The police chief agreed. He provided Stoican with documents ordering the state recording company, Electrecord, to carry out Stoican's wishes. Since he wasn't a musical star and was already in his mid 30s, Stoican knew this was the chance to make his mark. He recorded a single in 1966, with a band of musicians provided by the record company. But it was a flop and Stoican disappeared from the Bucharest music scene.

A decade later Stoican decided to try again. He went back to Electrecord and insisted that he be allowed to make a recording with the band of HIS choice. After a year of daily visits, Electrecord finally relented. That was in 1977.

With the help of well-known trumpeter, Costel Vasilescu Stoican brought together a band featuring some of the stars of the Romanian capital's music scene.

In 2002, record producer Henry Ernst began to negotiate with Electrecord to release Stoican's 1977 LP to the world. It took 3 years for Ernst to get the rights. It was only then that he found out why the negotiations had taken so long. "Nobody could remember the artist we spoke about and nobody could find the tapes of IPS, so the dream of the violinist was simply buried in the archive and only a long research by the Electrecord staff brought the master tapes to the daylight.

"The CD is called "Ion Petre Stoican: Sounds from a bygone age, Volume. 1."  01/23/06 >> go there
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