Monsieur Camembert

Triple Aria Award winning group Monsieur Camembert has been described as theatrical, irreverent, virtuosic and off the wall.  While remaining completely independent, the group has been at the forefront of Australia’s “Gyprock” explosion, performing for more than ten years and gaining a wide audience at a range of events including national and international music festivals, concert halls and even celebrity weddings.

Monsieur Camembert is a five-piece Gypsy fusion band in Sydney, Australia formed in 1999. Their first album, was the live release The Gypsy Hot Club Presents Monsieur Camembert, which featured Svetlana Bunic on accordion, Julian Curwin on lead guitar, Yaron Hallis on vocals and rhythm guitar, Michael Lira on double bass and Daniel Weltlinger on violin and was recorded at The Gypsy Hot Club.  Released in 1999, it is also titled, Live @ The Basement and demonstrated their styles including Gypsy swing, Greek, Hungarian-Russian gypsy, klezmer, tango and original songs.  The linguistic repertoire of Monsieur Camembert's music includes English, Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish.

Performances have included the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony, the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, sell-out concerts in Paris, the International Festival Of Music and Dance in Thailand, the International Gypsy Swing Festival in New Caledonia, The Mosaic World Music Festival in Singapore, Australia Day Celebrations in Bangkok and Laos, WOMADelaide in South Australia, four Woodford Festivals in Queensland and many other festivals including Arts, Jazz, Folk, World, Acoustic and Gypsy Festivals across Australia.

Monsieur Camembert’s second CD Live on Stage won the 2002 Aria Award for Best World Music Album. They followed this up in 2003 with their third CD Absynthe which again took out the Aria Award for Best World Music Album. The album remained on the Australian Jazz Charts for a record breaking 145 weeks, after more than six months at the No. 1 position. In 2005, Monsieur Camembert received their third Aria Award for Best World Music Album for the double self-titled CD, Monsieur Camembert, and performed live at the Aria Fine Arts Award.

In 2006 and 2007, Monsieur Camembert developed and recorded a Leonard Cohen Show, Famous Blue Cheese, which was nominated for an Aria Award in the category of Original Cast Recordings/Soundtracks. In 2008 the band toured Famous Blue Cheese extensively, kicking off at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with special guest Deborah Conway and in July 2008 they headlined the prestigious International Leonard Cohen Festival in Canada.

The Camembert profile rocketed due to the ABC releasing a 10th anniversary edition of ‘Live on Stage’ supported by an advertising campaign.

In September 2012, Monsieur Camembert released a new CD as a tribute to the genius of Harry Nilsson.

If you would like more information, or would like to book Monsieur Camembert, please contact us.