ALAMOSA - Society Hall is excited to welcome back world music group Radio Free Bassanda on Friday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door, 400 Ross Ave. in Alamosa, and are available at the Green Spot at 711 State Ave. in Alamosa, or online at www.societyhall.org. The concert will also stream live on the Society Hall Facebook page and You-Tube channel.

If you're looking for something to rearrange and expand your musical DNA, this show is for you! Founding member Roger Landes is known nationally and internationally as one of the foremost players of the Irish bouzouki in the world, but in Radio Free Bassanda, he and his compatriots venture farther afield into the even more exotic areas around the eastern Mediterranean - the Balkans and the Near East.

Says Society Hall board member and area musician and producer Don Richmond, “Radio Free Bassanda emerged out of a community that grew around an annual world music camp called Zoukfest, which was founded by Roger Landes, first in Missouri and then transplanted to New Mexico. It was a melting pot of wild experimentation, improvisation and cross pollination of the two traditions of the bouzouki – Irish and Greek/Turkish, with lots of different scales and even different notes that our western ears aren't used to hearing. Don't miss these guys – they'll blow your mind!”

Radio Free Bassanda's music is a fascinating and adventurous exploration of the sounds of the different cultures of the region, including music from Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Kurdistan, Armenia, North Africa, Medieval Spain, and even New Mexico! The wonderful skill of the players allows for lots of adventurous improvisation as well, providing a mesmerizing listening experience for the audience. The energetic and complex rhythms, together with their dizzying melodic frenzy will challenge both the ear and the feet, and their wide range of repertoire and instrumentation from Eastern and Western traditions provides the musicians with a broad timbral palette with which to hypnotize and transport the listeners.

Taos multi-instrumentalist and RFB band member Chipper Thompson, covering dumbeq, darabukka, and zarb, will be familiar to long-time music fans in the Valley, having played numerous shows of his own music here over the years. Besides founder Roger Landes on bouzouki and oud, the other band members are Ben Wright on double bass, Jack Boaz on violin, and Jordan Langehennig on clarinet, qanun, gajda, zurna, oud, dulcimer, accordion, and tin whistle.