Farmers Market - Surfin' USSR (2008)

The music of Farmers Market is a mixture of Bulgarian folk music, jazz standards, popular music and humor. Farmers Market has become one of Norway's most popular live bands, playing at all kinds of venues and festivals: jazz, folk and rock. Farmers Market has been releasing music in Norway sporadically over the past decade but their releases have been generally hard to find on U.S. shores. Those who have been lucky enough to hear the outfit have been instantly won over by the unbelievable musicianship and oddball mixture of styles. The groups last release came in 2000 and according to the band the title was never release, a secret amongst them and the label. Jazziz said of the outfit and the secretly-titled release, Balkan-jazz crossover may be well-established by now, especially on this side of the Atlantic. But seemingly from out of nowhere comes the Norwegian/Bulgarian quintet Farmers Market with a self-titled album that kicks the burgeoning genre sideways a notch or three.