POMATO

A fusion group based in Bucharest, whose music blends Afro, Latin, Balkan and funk influences

Ana-Maria Popescu, 08.02.2026, 14:26

This new episode in the 2026 Music Time series features a fresh Bucharest-based group who may well be the dictionary definition of the concept of fusion: their music blends Afro, Latin, Balkan and funk; the band members come all from different countries (the bassist Felipe Marchant was born in Chile, the sax player Adrien Vonfeld comes from France, the guitarist Ilie Țurcanu from the Republic of Moldova, and the drummer, Luca Iov, is Romanian); and on top of everything else, the name of the band is that of a hybrid plant, a fruit and a vegetable at the same time: Pomato.

I talked to two of the band members, Ilie Țurcanu and Felipe Marchant, about what they jokingly call a “tomato & potato situationship.”