“Revolution is great,” violinist Alexander Bălănescu intoned over electronic beat and slashing, amplified strings. Numbers from the Balanescu Quartet’s 1994 album Luminitza – which draws on the Romanian frontman’s experiences returning to his country of birth after an absence of 22 years – made up the first bracket of the group’s retrospective concert at the Adelaide Festival.

The quartet, whose influences span folk music to Minimalism and experimental German electronic group Kraftwerk, has a long history with Adelaide, including performing (with a different line-up) the soundtrack to Meryl Tankard’s Possessed at the 1998 Adelaide Festival, and there were obviously plenty of fans in the audience at the Adelaide Town Hall.

Balanescu Quartet, Adelaide FestivalAlexander Bălănescu. Photo: supplied

From the folk-infused Luminitza tracks, shot through with a Michael Nyman-esque post-minimalist momentum, Bălănescu and his band took the audience deeper into his Romanian heritage with works from the 2005 album Maria T. Named for singer Maria Tănase, Bălănescu’s works built on and are inspired by her songs. Mountain Call saw the quartet duetting with Tănase’s voice over the speakers, echoing her shepherd cries in haunting harmonics while Bălănescu’s violin, in a halo of reverb, took on a voice-like...