Zoë Aqua
Denver, CO
Narrator

Brandon Perdomo
Brooklyn, NY
Interviewer

Session Conducted:
Zoom / Online

17 June 2025

Interview Excerpt
See the full session 1 Aug 2025

—So I'm going back to the táncház movement in Cluj—in Transylvania where I was living—a pretty strong scene of these younger revival musicians. And so this album is with musicians from that Hungarian speaking scene in Cluj. They're all from different parts of Transylvania, so they're all pretty steeped in—I would say all of the different styles that are requested for folk bands in Transylvania, whether that's kind of more on the Hungarian side or what they might play for a Romanian wedding
and also more Romani-inflected styles as well.

—It's called "In a Sea of Stars"

—We did live recordings in this synagogue tour project that I started last summer. And so far we've done—four of these concerts in historic synagogues in Transylvania and we recorded two of them—for the title, I was trying to think about—what it felt like to be in those spaces and some design elements that to me stand out. And I think one thing that's—seen often in these Transylvanian synagogues is the ceiling or the area in the back behind the Bima area is painted with stars—that was kind of a through line that I noticed and that I think is really beautiful that I personally really like looking at—

—and it was also coming from this feeling of being in the space and feeling all of these spirits I would say—it's kind of like when you look at the stars at night and you see they're coming down from a distant place but you know that they're there.