In 2002, the Brighton Festival programmed a one-off double bill consisting of Romanian gipsy band Taraf De Haïdouks and Lebanese composer and oud master Rabih AbouKhalil. It was a radical pairing but it worked.

So when music programmer Guy Morley heard that rising Albuquerque duo A Hawk And A Hacksaw were touring, he set about looking for an unlikely accompaniment to their off-kilter Eastern European folk and hit upon the Original Kocani Orkestar, a gipsy wedding band from Macedonia led by trumpeter King Naat Veliov.

"I love Mr Veliov's music," says Jeremy Barnes, drummer, accordionist and singer with A Hawk And A Hacksaw, "but I've never seen it live before."

With violinist and violist Heather Trost, Barnes has released three acclaimed albums under the A Hawk And A Hacksaw banner, augmenting a mix of Eastern European folk, gipsy song and klezmer with Mexican fanfare and cinematic flourishes. Barnes has lived in France and the Czech Republic, even spending time living with the local musicians in a Romanian village, and his travels are integral to the duo's music.

"Thanks to recorded sound, you don't have to travel to travel," he observes, "but I wouldn't know what else to do. I would like to settle down and move my mother into my house but I imagine I would still have to head out on that open road, she would drive me crazy."

For their current tour, Barnes and Trost have teamed up with a Hungarian four-piece known as The Hun Hangar Ensembl, who'll be bringing bagpipes, clarinet, saxophone and other instruments to the mix.

  • 7.30pm, £15-£18, 01273 709709
  • For review, see Monday's The Argus or visit www/theargus.co.uk/festival