Trigon is the name of a folk-jazz band from Moldova.

The group was created in Chişinău in 1992 and debuted at the Chişinău Jazz Festival in 1993. It originally consisted of the band leader Anatol Ştefăneţ (viola), Serguei Testimatsanu (bass-guitar) and Oleg Baltaga (drums).

Anatol Ştefăneţ born into a traditional lăutari family is known for his virtuoso viola skills, especially its Moldovan traditional version, the "bratsch". His solos are featured on several other albums and projects, including the "Black Sea Orchestra" and the "Lăutari".

Trigon released their first CD "Moldavian Wedding in Jazz" in France (SILEX) and immediately received the French music award "Grand Prix du Disc". Their second album, "Oglinda" was released in Germany (Jaro). During 1996-1999 the group toured Europe and the ex-USSR countries extensively always to a critical acclaim.

Their highly acclaimed concert in Germany took place in April 1998 at the "Hamburg Jazz Festival" in the cities famous cultural center "Fabrik". Since then they have performed frequently in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Moldova and Russia.

2000 saw the release of their 3-d album, "Free Gone" (Boheme Music , Russia) with Alexander Murzak substituting for Testimatsanu. Trigon recorded their 4-th CD, "The voice of my earth" (Green records, Romania) in 2001.

The latest incarnation of the band includes Anatol Ştefăneţ (alt), Dorel Burlacu (keybords), Valeriu Boghean (sax) and Garri Tverdohleb (percussion).

"Trigon's style encompasses elements of folk, jazz, rock and symphonic music. Brilliant improvisations and a keen understanding of musical forms characterize their jazz compositions. Trigon is undoubtedly a phenomenon in modern jazz music in its highest intellectual expression." (L.Osipova, Vice-president of the Russian Composers Union)

 ©Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ethno Jazz group Trigon was born in 1992 owing to desire to play music for the soul, which one is unexpected for musicians has brought to them the European grade already in 1994, thanking to the award of the French Academy of arts "Charles Cros" for debut CD - "The Moldovan wedding in jazz". "Trigon's style encompasses elements of folk, jazz, rock and symphonic music. Brilliant improvisations and a keen understanding of musical forms characterize their jazz compositions. Trigon is undoubtedly a phenomenon in modern jazz music in its highest intellectual expression"

 ©L.Osipova - Vice-president of the Russian Composers Union

Trigon's music was broadcasted on radio stations like BBC/London, WDR/Koln, Radio Cluj - Vocea Transilvaniei, RDP - Radio Portuguesa, Voice of America/ Washington, Radio Novi Sad, Radio Free Europe, Radio Nova de Porto, Radio France Internationale, in Switzerland on three radio posts where was presented by jazzolog Jurg Solothurnmann in 1995, 1996, 2000, CD-Radio Cluj -Napoca, Radio Paris-Lisboa, Radio of Russia. The group had concert tours in Spain, Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Romania, Norway, Holland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, New Zealand, Switzerland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Denmark, Ukraine, Belorussia, England, Czech, Austria, Japan, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Greece, Portugal.

"Four virtuosos, four magnificent musicians, create together aesthetically modern and very original music. The proficiency and easiness of their performance, the humour of their dramatic music can be compared to Chick Corea playing the concert of Mozart, with vocal participation and conducted by Bobby McFerrin"
 ©Milen Panaiotov - Festival "Varna summer", "Kultura" 17 September 2004, (Bulgaria)

"The Moldovan group Trigon has presented the jazz performance or a parade of amusements I would compare each of their compositions with "Pictures from the exhibition" of Mussorgsky, but in jazz style. Their program showed a rich palette of polystylistic variety of jazz and folklore. The audience was ecstatic"
 ©Olga Stelmashevskaya - "Mirror of the week" Donetsk (Ukraine)

"One more truly tremendous success of Trigon group, which, unfortunately, performs in Russia less often than in Western Europe, therefore the rare chance to hear this group here was precious. Their performance successfully combined the serious compositions in the profound chamber music style, admired by the most pretentious public, and the big share of musical circus, enjoyed by the rest. The result was the deafening ovation and loud delight of the audience"
 ©Newspaper "Culture" (Ukraine)

"Anatol Stefanet is kind of the Jimi Hendrix of the viola. Stefanet comes from a long line of musicians. Playing with the folk band Laeutari, Anatol began playing the bratsch as a solo instrument, something that had never been done before. His new-found musical love has resulted in solo albums and a stint with the group Trigon. The band plays jazz tunes that are tinged with elements of folk, rock, funk and chamber music"
 ©Philipp Krum (France)

"It was just great! If you want to speak about the music they played, you have to be as good as them as unusual as they were. And I think it is useless to try to match them in originality- it would be rather difficult. It would be rather difficult. it would be better to make the effort to try to understand and to evaluate the astonishing depth of what they are doing. I think that those who got impressed excited just by the charm of their arrangements, are profoundly wrong, they are wonderful profound, real musicians, performing real profound music. Their style is a very dangerous one. Lots of groups are hiding under a fake originality sheer non professionalism. It is not their case very one of them is a brilliant professional, a virtuoso. Beside this, they offered us warm, astonishing and vivid world in which we felt extremely good"
 ©Anatol Kroll - maestro of Russian jazz Moscow (Russia)

"Trigon is the best alternative for playing and conveying the inimitable expression and originality of folk-jazz. Obviously each artist possesses talent and unique skill. The variety of their music is unique, the group succeeding in achieving a monumental synthesis of Balkan melodies and free cosmopolitan jazz. Their Music represents a synthesis of feeling, folklore and modern jazz. They won their own place on the world jazz stage, touring the world for 11 years, from Canary Islands to Japan and from Yakutia to New Zealand"
 ©Virgil Mihaiu - Jazz & rock 2003 (Romania)

"Trigon has succeeded in finding the narrow path between folklore and jazz and in creating their own unique music, showing tremendous imagination and virtuosity. Every musician is a soloist, playing its own game and music, which is a demanding accomplishment. The audience, trying to follow the musicians, immediately falls in trance. And for the rest of the concert is lost in day-dreaming. Dreaming amazingly beautiful dreams. It's impossible to remain indifferent at the concert. The images are real, visible, palpable. It's a theatre-music, plastic, artistic, with an enormous sense of humour. Painting and Music - daring, strong, dramatic. When any movement of the bow, any sound is freedom, pleasure, joy. It's music lived on the stage. Music about universal truths. About the world and about us in this world. About something in us, hidden deep inside, unconscious and enormously important. An illusion? I would rather say virtuosity, deepest understanding, and metamorphosis."
 ©Megapolis journal - 2005 Moscow (Russia)