Luna Amară is a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

/grunge

Grunge

Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...

 band. The name means "Bitter Moon" in Romanian

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

, and is borrowed from the Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

 movie of the same name

Bitter Moon

Bitter Moon is a 1992 film starring Hugh Grant, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmanuelle Seigner and Peter Coyote and directed by Roman Polanski. The film is known as in France. The script is inspired by a book with the same name, written by the French author Pascal Bruckner. The score was composed by...

, inspired by the eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

ous novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 written by Pascal Bruckner

Pascal Bruckner

Pascal Bruckner is a French writer.-Biography:After studies at the university Paris I and Paris VII Diderot, and then at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Bruckner became maître de conférences at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, and collaborator at the Nouvel Observateur.Bruckner...

.

History

The band was formed by Nick Făgădar (vocals, guitar) and Gheorghe Farcaş (bass guitar) in Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

, Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, in September 1999. The initial name of the band was Tanagra Noise. In 2000 they changed it to the current name, Luna Amară. The band has played on stage over 200 times in the past five years, throughout Romania. As a live act, this Romanian five-piece outfit has a style that combines heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 with alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

. Luna Amara was the first Romanian band to introduce the trumpet sound into an Alternative Rock style.

All the artists in the band want to dedicate their lives to promote and support a modern Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an society in Romania - their lyrics have often a political message. Luna Amară is also involved in ecological projects such as "Save Vama Veche

Vama Veche

Vama Veche is a village in Romania on the Black Sea coast, near the border with Bulgaria, at 28.57 E longitude, 43.75 N latitude. It is part of the commune of Limanu and in 2002, it had a population of 178....

" (protecting the endangered seahorse

Seahorse

Seahorses compose the fish genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, in order Syngnathiformes. Syngnathidae also includes the pipefishes. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning “sea monster”.There are nearly 50 species of seahorse...

s), "Save Roşia Montană

Rosia Montana

Roșia Montană is a commune of Alba County in the Apuseni Mountains of western Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the Valea Roșiei, through which the Roșia River flows...

" (protecting the wildlife and natural surroundings of a mountain area from cyanide

Cyanide

A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....

 poisoning) and social awareness projects, such as the recent "Vote for Them" tour, organized to convince young adults to vote (for them).

"Luna Amară" is currently one of Romania's most successful groups from the new wave of rock acts. Luna Amară was the top selling artist in a national chain of music stores (Hollywood Music & Film) from July until September 2004. The "Folclor" ("Folklore"), "Gri Dorian" ("Dorian Grey"), "Roşu aprins" ("Scarlet

Scarlet (color)

Scarlet is a bright red color with a hue that is somewhat toward the orange. It is redder than vermilion. It is a pure chroma on the color wheel one-fourth of the way between red and orange. Scarlet is sometimes used as the color of flame...

") and "Ego nr. 4" singles reached number one in airplay charts at local radio stations around the country .

In January 2006 they released the album "Loc lipsă" (Missing Place). The band performed a 40 dates tour all over Romania in clubs and open air locations as well as shows in Holland, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey. For the 2nd time consecutively, Luna Amară has been invited to play live at Sziget Festival

Sziget

The Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary is one of the largest music and cultural festivals in Europe. It is held every August on the Northern Budapest Óbudai-sziget , a leafy island of 108 hectares on the Danube. Sziget stands for Island...

 in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

.

After two very well-sold albums, in 2009 Luna Amară has recorded a third one, "Don't Let Your Dreams Fall Asleep", where the acoustic side of the band is especially underlined. This album contains 9 songs in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and 3 in Romanian. "Don't Let Your Dreams Fall Asleep" was praised in such cultural magazines as Dilema Veche

Dilema Veche

Dilema veche , formerly Dilema, is a Romanian weekly journal of culture, criticism and opinion.- History :It was founded as Dilema in 1993 by art critic Andrei Pleşu and up until the end of 2003 it was edited by an independent cultural body, Fundaţia Culturală Română...

 and some of their singles, such as "Chihlimbar", remained number one on several charts for quite a long time, such as for 4 weeks in June and July 2009 in Cityfms Romtop.

Discography

• Asfalt (July 2004)

1. "Gri Dorian"
2. "Oraș"
3. "Asfalt"
4. "Ego nr. 4"
5. "Roșu aprins"
6. "Your Garden"
7. "Mara (acoustic)"
8. "Dizident"
9. "Antidot"
10. "Folclor"
11. "Simplify My Spider"
12. "Stare de graœie"
13. "Tanagra Noise"
14. "Unfed"
15. "Ciudat (acoustic)"

• Loc lipsă (January 2006)

1. "Loc lipsă" (with Ombladon)
2. "Întunecare"
3. "Se întamplă-n România" (with Andy Ghost)
4. "Albastru"
5. "Luni de fiere"
6. "La Vedere"
7. "Lume Oarbă"
8. "Downtown Jesus"
9. "Umbră Copil"
10. "Somn"
11. "În Cercuri"
12. "Cui și spin"
13. "Happiness Provider"
14. "Din valuri ard" (with Mihai Iordache)

• Don't Let Your Dreams Fall Asleep (December 2008)

1. "Into Another"
2. "Transitions"
3. "Chihlimbar"
4. "Unghii de drac"
5. "True Sunshine"
6. "Deadends"
7. "No Return"
8. "Kill the Dancer"
9. "Hunt the Wire"
10. "Floodmoses"
11. "Little Sun"
12. "Mara (2008)"

Videos

• Roşu aprins (March 2002)
• Gri Dorian (October 2002; MTV
  MTV
  MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
  
  Romania Exclusive Video)
• Ego Nr. 4 (June 2004)
• Folclor (December 2004)
• Loc lipsă (January 2006)
• Chihlimbar (forthcoming)

External links

Luna Amară, official web page Save Roşia Montană Interview with Mihnea Blidariu (voice, guitar & trumpet