Dedicated to the homeland shaped by centuries of wandering and belonging, MOTHERLAND is a project born from the deep multi-cultural heritage of Transylvania. Created by MINDTHEGAP Trio together with the talented group FLOW.Strings Quartet in the city of Targu Mures, MOTHERLAND weaves the jazz fusion, rock and electronic soundscape with the neo-classical depth of the strings, creating a complex sensorial experience that brings together the cultural diversity of Transylvania with the contemporary sound of jazz and folk accompanied by acoustic instruments.
The project came to life in the Autumn of 2024, starting with an impressive performance that took place in the Fortified Church of Biertan. A 500-years old UNESCO World Heritage monument nestled in the heart of a Saxon village in Transylvania, where music and visual artistry converged beneath the vaulted ceiling of the fortified church. A project that has been recorded live and produced one year later as a live album, but also as a movie, both called MOTHERLAND. Considering the success of the project at that time, the musicians have decided to continue and develop the experience and the next emmersive show took place on year later in another stunning Transylvanian edifice, the Reformat Church of the Citadel of Targu Mures and then in 2026 the bands reunited for an international acclaimed perfomance at Garana Jazz Festival 30 Anniversary Edition, playing this time in the beautiful church of Brebu Nou village.
Since MOTHERLAND represents somehow the cultual diversity of Transylvania and speakes about the unity through diversity in this beautiful side of the world, Stefan ORMENISAN decided to take to the next level the project by creating a series of live shows accros whole Romania, combined with local folk groups and social programs that involves musical schools, non-governamental organizations, and acclaimed professionals, all bringing their high-level expertise in exploring local traditions and heritage in order to show it to the whole world.
FLOW.Strings Quartet
Roxana PAL -violin
Tamas PAL - violin
Alex COCHISA - viola
Andras VILHELEM - cello
MINDTHEGAP Trio
Ștefan ORMENIȘAN - piano, keyboards
Alex CIOATĂ - bass
Tamas ISZLAI - drums
The music for MOTHERLAND project comes from MINDTHEGAP Trio’s albums as well as some new songs composed for the upcoming album dedicated to Transylvanian heritage, all being adapted and arranged for the strings quartet by Alex CIOATÃ (composer, bass).
This means that starting with the Autumn of 2026, MOTHERLAND became a project supported by AFCN (Autoritatea Fondul Cultural National) in order to promote the whole Transylvanian cultural heritage around the country. Within this project, an important side represents the concerts that will take part in 4 different historical locations - The Old Barn of MET Foundation in Viscri, the Evanghelical Cathedral of Sibiu, the Zion Synagogue in Oradea and the Anglican Church in Bucharest - all being financially supported by the cultural project won under the umbrella of MINDTHEGAP Foundation.
More details regarding the program and locations can be found in Dates section.
„On a sunny Saturday morning, in the intimate space of the Roman Catholic church in the nearby town of Brebu Nou, which was chosen this year for the so-called Experimental stage, I experienced the most pleasant surprise of this year's festival. The Romanian band Mindthegap Trio joined forces with the Flow.Strings quartet to perform the project "Motherland", an impressive work located between chamber jazz and progressive rock, and deeply rooted in the multicultural soul of Transylvania. Through the exceptionally tasteful and mature orchestrations of the band's bass player Alex Cioata, the harmonious playing of the trio itself and the effective use of the Moog synthesizer by Stefan Ormenișan, which represented the sonic highlight of the performance, the music breathed the rich heritage of this region, intertwining traditional Romanian motifs with Armenian melancholic and mystical lines and Hungarian and Saxon folklore elements“.
ZLATAN DIMITRIJEVIĆ / JazzIn.rs
