Cuibul are an acoustic

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

band from

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

. Igor Dinga, founder and initial vocalist of the band formed the band in 1991 as a

rock'n'roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African American music such as jazz, rhythm and ...

fusion band. The band released 6 albums from 1991 to 2001, and their musical style changed from rock'n'roll to acoustic mellow funk with

chillout Chill-out (shortened as chill; also typeset as chillout or chill out) is a loosely defined form of popular music characterized by slow tempos and relaxed moods. The definition of "chill-out music" has evolved throughout the decades, and generally ...

and Latino influences. Cuibul is widely regarded as an important contributor to the Moldovan live music scene. They are the oldest band from Moldova which is currently active.

History

1990s

During their first 10 years, the band released 6 albums and 7 music videos. Cuibul's concert activity was most intense from 1991 to 1995 and between 1998 and 2001, when the album ''Po-mid'or'' (meaning "tomato" in Russian) was released. Throughout these years, Cuibul's activity geographically spread through

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Igor Dinga is a Russian-speaking songwriter, also director of the Moldovan ethno-rock band

Zdob și Zdub Zdob și Zdub (; , onomatopoeia, onomatopoeic for the sound of a drum beat) is a Moldovan folk punk band, based in Chișinău. The band Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv ...

. The first two Cuibul albums were released together with the Moscow-based labels Feelee Records and CD Land Records. Despite the fact that the band's music was too experimental for the Russian mainstream market, some of the tracks proved successful. The singles "Muzika Letneaya" and "Igra v duraka" hit the

MTV Russia MTV Russia or MTV Россия () was a Russian music and entertainment TV channel, which carried out its broadcasting from 25 September 1998 to 31 May 2013. On 1 October 2013, MTV Russia was relaunched as a satellite pay TV channel. In March 2 ...

TOP 20 charts and the music video for "Muzika Letneaya" was recognized among the 100 best Russian music videos of 1998. The single "Kolybelnaya" hit the rotation on popular radio stations such as Nashe Radio and Russkoe Radio, while the funky single "Pomidor" reached TOP 10 on Europa Plus. To continue the musical activity in Russia, the band members would have had to move to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and promote themselves on the spot. However, the musicians were not ready for such a serious change. In addition, Russia faced a harsh financial crisis in 1998 and FEELEE Records minimized their activity and support.

2000s

In December 2001, Cuibul recorded and launched the album ''Klyuchi ot vannoy'' (trans: "Bathroom keys"). Between 2003 and 2008, the band was inactive. In 2007, the

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

Igor Kosholyan returned to Moldova from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and the

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Vadim Tichisan returns from

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, Romania. Because of this, Cuibul resumed their activity. For one year, the musicians rehearsed and searched for a new sound. The new format was composed of Igor Kosholyan as a guitar player, Vadim Tichisan for drums, Andrei Boico as the bass player and Igor Dinga as frontman guitarist and vocalist. At the end of 2009, Cuibul launched 13 tracks under the album ''PRiZ'' (abbreviation for "Proshay i Zdrastvuy", meaning "Goodbye and Welcome"). In February 2010, Cuibul released a new music video for the album single "Proshay i Zdrastvuy", followed by a music video for "Ruchka Usilka" which featured a cameo of

Muz-TV Muz-TV (, from Музыкальное телевидение - Music Television) is a Russian music TV channel, broadcasting since 1996. It is largely modelled after western MTV and predates launching of MTV Russia in 1998. Muz-TV was founded by ...

Russia's presenter Rita Chelmakova.

2010s

In 2010, Cuibul's concert activity was ongoing in

and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. ''PRiZ'' was released in Russia together with the label Soyuz Music and in Ukraine with Hitlab/Moon Records. In 2011, Cuibul toured through

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

. They also participated at the EuroSonic Festival in

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

. By the end of 2011, Cuibul released a new music video for the song "Nebo ne Voda", filmed in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

together with the director Pavel Vladimirskyi. In December 2011, Cuibul celebrated their 20th anniversary through a grand concert starring guests such as Alexandr F. Sklyar, Serghei Galanin, Zorge, Zdob si Zdub, O Chad.

The rebirth of the band

The band planned to extend itself to the

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n music market and Igor Dinga decided to search for a young female vocalist with

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; , or , ) is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved fr ...

skills. After a long search, at the end of 2012

Lidia Scarlat Lidia may refer to: * Lidia (given name) * ''Lidia'' (spider), a spider genus * Hurricane Lidia, multiple storms * ''Comoedia Lydiae'', a medieval Latin elegiac comedy from the late twelfth century * Spanish Fighting Bull, also known as ''toro ...

joined Cuibul. She was a film producer and first class Media Arts graduate of the

Royal Holloway Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. Born into an artistic family, from her early years she participated successfully in various national and international music competitions. Lidia worked in radio and television, presenting the famous TV show for children “De la 5 la 10” at

TeleRadio-Moldova TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM) is the Moldovan state-owned national radio and television broadcaster. It owns two television channels and three radio stations. TRM was admitted as a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union on 1 January 199 ...

. In her university years she was the lead singer of the university's Jazz Big Band. Lidia made her debut in Cuibul in late December 2012 at a Christmas concert of the band where she performed 4 songs. One week later, she sang for an audience of thousands of people at the New Year concert “I love Moscow”, held in the heart of the Russian capital. The band was also joined by a new drummer – Jenea Berdea. Jenea had played in various bands, including ExNN,

Alternosfera Alternosfera is an alternative rock band from Chişinău, Republic of Moldova. They started their career in 1998 in highschool with their first album, Oraşul 511, being released in 2005. History The history of post-Soviet rock in the Republic o ...

, Headswitch, Millenium,

Gândul Mâței Gândul Mâței (, "The cat's thought") is a Moldovan alternative rock band from Chișinău, formed in 1996. Members Current members: * Nicu Țărnă – vocal * Sergiu Iarovoi – guitar * Igor Cristov – keyboards * Ghenadie Cazac – trum ...

. Currently, he performs in some musical projects like All Four Seasons, Whynona Ryderz, Ramzes Project, Doll. In 2013, Cuibul changed their sound, combining

acoustic guitars An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar an ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

cajón A cajón ( ; "box, crate, drawer") is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front or rear faces (generally thin plywood) with the hands, fingers, or sometimes implements such as brushes, mallets, or st ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

. Lidia Scarlat chose the most suitable songs from the existing repertoire and adapted the lyrics in

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. Lidia wrote the lyrics for the new single "Nu contează" in two versions : Romanian and English (the English version of the song is titled "Hello"). Lidia Scarlat performed a track list consisting of over 10 songs. The band's performances now feature two vocalists including Igori Dinga. The new format of the legendary band received mixed feedback from its old fans while new audiences followed the rebirth of the band with great interest. The band got back on track with intense concert activity and performed at several international music festivals such as "Dikaya Myata" in

and "Folk You!" in

. In summer 2013, the band released three videos from a studio acoustic session and started recording a new album. On 4 December 2013 Cuibul opened the concert for the Swedish band

The Cardigans The Cardigans are a Swedish rock band formed in Jönköping, Sweden in 1992. The main lineup of the band consisted of guitarist Peter Svensson, bassist Magnus Sveningsson, drummer Bengt Lagerberg, keyboardist Lars-Olof Johansson and lead sing ...

, at GlavClub. On 1 March 2014 Cuibul opened for the British band

Morcheeba Morcheeba are an English electronic band formed in the mid-1990s with founding members vocalist Skye Edwards and the brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey. They mix influences from trip hop, rock, folk rock and downtempo, and have produced ten regul ...

at the same concert venue. Both performances received excellent press feedback. Before opening the concert for

, Cuibul performed 7 songs at the art TV-show "Kozyrev Live" on Телеканал Дождь (TV Rain, Moscow). In March 2014, Cuibul had the last recording session for the new album in Moscow and recorded the last three songs from the new album at the studio of Yurii Bogdanov. In June 2014, Cuibul shot a music video for "Nu Conteaza" in

, directed by Vlad Gliga. Currently, the band is producing a new album, working on the newest version of their official website and preparing for the launch of the music video.

Discography

* 1992 – Первые песни – Лучшие песни! (translated as "First songs – Best songs!") * 1992 – Люди, как птицы – Прыгайте В Воду (translated as "People, as birds – Jump in the water") * 1994 – Ломайте ветки, Ломайте палки (translated as "Break the branches, break the sticks") * 1995 – Icare * 1998 – По-мид'ор (Po-mid'or) * 2001 – Ключи от ванной (translated as "Bathroom keys") * 2010 – ПриЗ (Priz) * 2015 – Vise Elementare (translated as "Elementary Dreams") * 2024 - Vamos!

References

{{Authority control Moldovan musical groups Moldovan funk musical groups