2024 sees the release of the Dallas String Quartet album ROMANI: The Untold Story, which, as the name suggests, is the untold story of the Romani people that Ion calls his own.
Ion Zanca is the founder of the Dallas String Quartet, with him on viola, supported by two violinists and a bass player, amongst other musicians added to the mix that augment the foundational quartet. Composed by Ion himself, the album speaks to the tragedy and oppression of his people, building soaring arrangements with dynamic, expressive and above all emotive progressions and passages.
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Speaking to the initial idea for the album, Ion explains “I was visiting Germany maybe six or seven years ago, and I went to the Dachau concentration camp. They had some signs and the history and the whole process of people being bought to camps.”
Continuing, Ion says “They had a map of Romani, or gypsy people, who were bought from Romania and Hungary. And on the map, it was literally the cities where my family is from.”
‘Gypsy’ is a derogatory term that’s become a catch-all for travelling, nomadic people.
“I remember my grandfather telling me stories that were so outlandish, like being deported on a heavy, cardboard boat just to make it far enough into the water for them to drown.”
“I thought this was too crazy, I thought it was just stuff my grandfather was making up… ‘cause nobody’s that evil, y’know?” Ion laughs, despite speaking about such heavy subject matter. “Well, I was wrong about that.”
“The more I looked into it, I realised not a lot of people know about this, including myself. It’s just a part of history that’s completely forgotten.”
“Last year my dad passed and I decided this needed to honour him and all the Romani people that have been part of this whole history, and nobody’s talking about it. I started interviews with professors from Hartford, Stanford, asking about it, the more I look into it; it’s a very difficult story to find.”
The opening track “Brewing Conflict” immediately invokes a pain, anguish and anxiety, with various harmonies and arrangement elements coming and going, and Ion speaks to this further.
“I’m a visual person, so based on my readings and seeing how people were treated during that time, I envision a Romani family being at the outskirts of the cities, because there were laws against them, that you didn’t have to serve them, didn’t have to give them jobs, so they were pushed a lot of times to the edge of the city, right?” Ion states, explaining that it put the Romani people into a cycle of struggling to integrate into society, being forced into stealing to feed their families and building a stereotype for stealing or being nomadic. “It’s the perpetuation thing.” he says.
“Brewing Conflict” speaks to the Romani family in this story knowing something bad is about to happen, but not knowing what. “That’s kind of the beginning of the conflict, the beginning of the journey.”
The melody begins solo, and as the track builds, more and more elements begin to play the melody, speaking to the story moving from the voice of one to the voice of many.
Ion goes on to further explain that he defines himself as a performer, having never really composed per se, and he initially intended for someone else to compose the album. He quickly realised it was too personal a story, so he took on the task himself.
Recording was a worldwide affair, with the Dallas String Quartet recording in Dallas, and musicians from Romania, Spain and elsewhere to record the solo parts on the album. From there, they recorded the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) at Abbey Road Studios, London.
“I wanted to tell more of a story, I wanted a more cinematic sound?” Ion says with a questioning inflection, explaining how and why that he decided to involve the LSO. “The more we were working on the project, the more I wanted that sound to be able to tell the story, and so then the orchestra grew size-wise and we got 6 French horns and 50 strings, so it became massive.”
“The previous years before my dad passed, I took some time off in London with my wife and my kid, and I had London in my mind for some reason. It was the place I was able to take a break from all the things that were happening in my life.”
“Historically speaking, LSO is one of the best known orchestras in the world, so I wanted to have LSO on the track because I want to bring awareness to a larger group. This issue is still happening now in Europe,”
“So it’s two-fold: one is they are incredible musicians, and two is they’re all also so well known, and it will give the album a bigger reach so we can tell the story.”
Ion speaks more directly to recording, saying he always records an acoustic violin, though switches to an electric for some live shows. The Dallas String Quartet have six albums before ROMANI: The Untold Story, though this album is the first to feature entirely original music, whereas the others feature a crossover style played by the DSQ.
As of the afternoon we’re chatting, Ion is re-arranging the album to be performed by just the DSQ in Brussels, a huge undertaking, but there’s plans to perform with the LSO at some point, augmented by a show documentary.
The album was mixed in Atmos, Ion being involved in the mixing itself. A list of engineers recorded, produced and mixed, the bulk of the mixing happening at AIR Studios in London. AIR handled the stereo mix, and Eric Schilling in LA handled the Atmos end of things.
“He [Eric Schilling]’s unbelievable, he has seventeen Grammys or something insane. He’s one of the legends of Atmos. When he was mixing he invited me in the studio to listen and have my two cents.” Ion explains.
“It was really great to work with him, and then we had to master in Atmos as well. It was a lot, a lot of work.” Ion smiles.
ROMANI: The Untold Story is available now and helping to raise money for the ROMA Foundation. Give poverty the boot!
