Daissa is a Gypsy word meaning ‘yesterday ’and ‘tomorrow ’and thus provides the perfect title for an album that harkens to the past yet sounds thoroughly contemporary. La Kumpania Zelwer combines elements of street theater and circus alongside vibrant music from the Gypsy tradition with references to Indian,Yiddish and Breton culture. Bandleader Jean-Marc Zelwer is a multi-talented musician who has even gone so far as to create his own instruments to get a specific sound he’s after. There are no limits to Zelwer ’s fertile imagination.

"Kumpania Zelwer is the brainchild of composer and multi-multi-instrumentalist Jean-Marc Zelwer. Zelwer plays everything from nyckelharpa to santur to glass xylophone. His eight-piece band plays everything from washboard to toy piano to singing saw. This eclectic assortment of household appliances would yields a colorful pastiche of sound. Zelwer and company use these and more conventional weapons of mass construction such as accordion, cello, trumpet, violin, and tuba to create a sound that mixes elements of klezmer, cabaret, and street theater, with touches of Gypsy and Breton music for good measure. Daissa is a wild ride and one well worth taking.

The album kicks off with the dramatic traditional Yiddish song "Birobidjan" (Listen!), about an autonomous Jewish region of the Soviet Union founded by Stalin. The optimistic lyrics belie the dire minor key of the melody. Vocalist Francesca Lattuada's powerful alto gives the piece the theatricality it deserves. Another highlight is the loopy instrumental "C'est pas tour les jours Shabbat," with its circus-like oom-pah tuba and clashing tonalities on piano, clarinet, and trumpet. The vaguely nightmarish "Balagan" (Listen!) features glass bottle xylophone and trumpet with a gouache of spooky organ and altered voices in the background. Particularly beautiful is the "Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs)," with its droning violin and santour accompaniment. "Polvere" a Corsican cante jondo (usually performed a cappella) gets a chamber music treatment with violin, cello, and nyckelharpa.

Zelwer has created street shows using dozens of musicians and has made a career of writing music for the stage. The theatre that is in his blood translates quite successfully to disc. He uses the sounds at his disposal as an impressionist painter might have used various brush strokes and combinations of color. The result is a richly textured canvas with all of the emotional impact of the best art."
Peggy Latkovich

01. Birobidjan
02. Daissa
03. Lekhayim! (A la Vie)
04. Opazdyvaia Na Messu
05. En Retard Pour la Messe
06. Trotz Alledem (Malgre Tout)
07. C'est Pas Tous Les Jours Shabbat
08. Balagan
09. Le Roi des Schnorrers
10. Shir Hashirim
11. Terra Incognita
12. Polvere (Poussiere)
13. Kiddush-Ha-Shem
14. Trois P'tits Tours et Puis Savon

Jean-Marc Zelwer - Accordion, Clarinet, Nyckelharpa, Glass Xylophone
Maryam Chemirani - Vocals
Dimitri Artemenko - Violin
Pierre Rigopoulos - Zarb Drum
Jean-François Ott - Cello
Michel Feugere - Trumpet
Sylvie Cohen - Keyboards, Toy-Piano, Water Drums
Sylvie Jérusalem - Tuba
Francesca Lattuada - Vocal

Link

pass: bluesmen-worldmusic.blogspot.com

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much, man... :)

Anonymous said...

the pass, my friend, for "La Kumpania Zelwer: Daissa (Tziganes Imaginaries)" is not working...

i'ved tried all the combinations that appear in your blog,

bluesmen-worldmusic.blogspot.com (copi-paste)

bluesmen-worldmusic.blogspot.com (written)

bluesmen-worldmusic.blogspot.com erasing the last (ghostly) space

etc.

but, in any case, the zipp tellsme that i'm wrong.

¿what can I do?


regards.

Anonymous said...

igen, password nem müködik :( :(

Would love to hear some of this jo zene but none of the archives will take the password.

Karla said...

Thanks!!The best blogger that I saw!
Greetings from Brazil!!
Karla

Related Posts with Thumbnails