Customer Reviews

East Meets East

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

East meet Easts is a 14 pieces filled album that is overwhelming about 65 minutes at all.
Eastern Folkmusic meets an incredible strings section and sometimes vocals that I like and that I don't (!!!!) like.
Kroke, the incredible Trio from Krakow, Poland is working together with Kennedy in the whole Eeast European music history and they give their chosen music a modern touch with sometimes jazzy influences I like and a really cool picked in e-violin. The album is almost very danceable and that is quite lovely. I like those tunes.
1.) Ajde Jano ... is the first track it has a really danceable lovely rhythm. I remember that tune cuz I heard it as opening track at Krokes solo tour this year in February in Germany. I absolutely don't know the vocals. I dunno why. I think after listening to it for even more times I will got to love it. I see small kids dancing at bloomy fields when I am listening to that tunes.
2.) Lullaby for Kamila ... is a melancholy tune. I really love it. I love all tragical melancholy sounds. They make me smile and the simple *mmmh mmmmmh* backup vocals are breathtaking for me.
3.) T 4.2 (hint:Tea for two) is just cool ... I heard it for the first time at the Berlin Museumsinsel Gig last year in Berlin. ... And well I was dancing on my chair ... ... (the rough mix of that piece is at "Ten pieces to save the world" without Kennedys e-violin ---> he goes crazy ... *yummy*)
4.) Eden ... is a track that is on "Ten Pieces to save the world" by Kroke as well without Kennedys e-violin and that was my favourite one of their album. It is a good way straight to Eden. That is honey for ears ( ... with feet ) FOLKY ROCK'N'ROLL, Yeah!)
5.) Dafino ... mmmmh ... that is "stolen" at one Slawish wedding party ... maybe ... ... It sounds really lovely ... I see the happy people taking each other by their hands ...
6.) Jovano Jovanke ... that is music for taking a trip on a long lonesome bad road with a even more bad car and someone in the back is telling you stories of the region where you are right now. It can be that you are on the road with horses as well but it is definitely a traditional Roadmovie soundtrack ... ... or it is the last song at one very long party ... you know when the sun is almost coming again in the morning. Everyone seems to be tired but none will stop. Just lovely. And when the sun is up. The band at the party will find new energy and kicks all their energy in the last tunes.
7.) Ederlezi ... that is originally by Goran Bregovic ... I love this interpretation ...
8.) Kasimierz ... He is Jewish and he is telling us a story ... it isn't a sad story ... it is one with happy end ... it is maybe a story about a love ... .. who cares. It is lovely.
9.) One voice ... someone is telling a sad story ... definitely ... it is without happy end. That was my first impression. That's it. I love Kennedys violinpart.
10.) Tribute to Maria Tanase ... was a Romanian singer ... she was known as East European Edith Piaf. I got some tunes of her at one Vinyl LP. She is incredible.
... well and she is dead and these tunes are for her. A better tribute cannot exist.
11.) Time 4 Time ... that is a joke with time ... and with rhythm and with folky tunes. I really love it.
12.) Vino ... means Wine ... so it is clear it can be just a drunken song ... ... it shows me how my brain looks like in delirium. ... everything isn't that clear I want to see.
13.) Lost in Time ... is just and simply wonderful.
14.) Kukush ... is my favourite track ... that is Hardcore Party. I love those tracks I love those music. I know such similar tracks from my trips I have done already to Romania. And I want to dance of course. It is my favourite, definitely before Eden!

Sublime, intriguing music ... the seductive & sultry voice of Natacha Atlas singing "Ajde Jano" grabbed my attention when I heard this CD for the first time. Add to this, the unique improvisations and "voice" of the violin played by Nigel Kennedy - this CD is dynamite. The whole CD is filled with traditional music, captivating, soulful, haunting, emotional melodies & tunes from the past. Updated & electrified, the musical phrases and harmonics are explored and improvised by the Kroke Band & Nigel Kennedy. They create feelings of ecstasy and joy in the listener. Nigel Kennedy and the Kroke Band are classically trained musicians who have *fully* awakened to the "village sound" with *all* the expansive possibilites for interpretaion and freedom that this implies. These musicians make the most of their classically trained precision and contrasting dsicovery of freedom - the harmonics & stylizations resemble that of Hungary, Romania, Moldavia, & even Transylvania, along with the occsaional mournful or ecsatatic klezmer. My other favorites besides, "Ajde Jano", are "T 4.2" which has melodies I find myself humming throughout the day after listening to the CD. "Eden", "Dafino", and "Ederlezi" are tunes I have heard before, played by this group they take on a whole new explosive dimension. Their rendition of the famous folk tune, "Jovano, Jovanke", from Macedonia, has me up on my feet and dancing each and every time I hear it ...

The trance inducing violin playing, the free-form klez and E. Euro gypsy style plus classical precision to control the listener's emotions is an unbeatable combination. These guys create spiralling musical pathways, taking the listener to the here-to-fore unexplored universe of traditional Balkan & East European village music which they redesign for modern ears ...
Erika Borsos (erikab93)

As someone who was born into an ethnically diverse family and spent the first part of her life in the former Yugoslavia, it was mesmerizing for me to listen to this CD. I have heard melodies like "Ajde Jano," "Dafino," "Jovano, Jovanke," and "Ederlezi," throughout my childhood and hearing them again brings back so much emotion and so many memories. This is wonderful music and I never tire of hearing it performed in new arrangements and by new performers. Enjoy!

I am a big lover of classical music and somehow I got my hands around this music. I can only agree a hundred percent with the other listeners that this music is crowling deep inside your soul, makes you want to smile, and to cry at the same time. You will not forget it! It is beautiful and relaxing in some parts, others simply take away your breath and you feel (finally) something about your own passion (again) with this music. Yes, you can imagine people dancing and you can feel the fire of love and dance, intertwined with an endless feeling of happiness.

I have been to Krakow and with this music in the back of my mind I am looking forward to going back again and to hopefully find folk bands which are similar to this astonishing master piece performed by Nigel Kennedy.

Enjoy!
Uwe

Right now I'm in the opinion that this is the most sublime
and emotionally intense record I have ever heard.

I have owned this CD for some years and it is possibly my most favourite of favourites. Something has happened to one of the tracks so I am buying another copy. I can't bear to have it incomplete. This CD speaks to my soul with every piece. When you think you have heard the best of the CD the next just grabs your heart. The combination of Nigel Kennedy and the Kroke Band is absolutely superb. I can listen to them for hours on end. If you are a Nigel Kennedy fan this one is a must. No, a need.

This record demands a number of listenings. I am not a huge classical violin fan (I admit I cannot even remember why I purchased this disk) and this CD sat on my shelf for years. Once in a while, I'd listen to Ajde Jano, which I liked quite a bit and that was it (BTW, not only is this disk a departure for Kennedy, but Atlas shines on this track in a way lacking in her solo work). But over time, I have come to have such a tremendous respect for this disk--once I listened to it enough to really get into the spirit of it. It is incredible!

That said, this is not really a classical violin disk, per se. Kennedy complements Kroke, but does not impose himself at all--what great modesty and restraint for a player of Kennedy's renown! Bottom line, this is an awesome E. European folk disk accompanied by some of the most inspired and flawless violen playing that I have (in my admittedly limited experience) ever heard.

This is just a wonderful, fun and eclectic disk that has much to offer music lovers of a number of different persuasions. (I must admit that Ajde Jano is still my favorite track.)

East Meets EastFrom the ear of one American, this album is clearly music from Europe, and though the band (it is written on the sleeve) is Polish, when listening to the pieces Russian comes to mind and then Eastern. Each song seems to draw a picture, if you will, of people both foreign to (most of) America and yet familiar (to the traveler even if the travel is only from books and movies). The facets of their personalities and emotions--proud; hard-working; busy; complicated; joyous; torn; and talented--are evident in the pieces presented in this work. This album is a delight to the soul. It seems to share with us another way of life, and how music is truly a universal language that can bring together different cultures in a way that needs no translation. The impulse to dance, sway and hum along with this music is natural. I'm happy to be able to share these sounds with guests to my home, and to know Nigel Kennedy by his art. I look foward to getting to know him better.

I just continue to rediscover this cd over time; everytime I play it, it feels like a new experience. I bought it for just one song, Track #8, and I'm very happy with the entire cd to say the least. It's brilliant and beautiful work. It feeds my soul to listen to this cd. And I need that from time to time something beautiful to recharge my batteries and this is definitely one of those things for me. Thank you for reading and enjoy to all who choose to buy this cd.

I purchased this music because the title appeared interesting and because of the Hats on the front cover. I have now read the booklet too, it claims this music to be original Polish music, and Jewish influences are not mentioned, perhaps because Jews are likely scarce there (i.e., live ones). I guess I would not be offended if Poland had not wiped out all of its Jews! To me this is largely Jewish music and this product should be removed from the shelves until someone with a better historical perspective can rewrite the booklet.

Others have commented that my concern is not legitimate, I wonder how the world would have responded if Handel stole music by Vivaldi, yet Handel did not kill Vivaldi. This is a album claiming to be a rebirth of original music from Poland, a country that killed virtually all of its Jews, and the Jews were closely associated with the music that is being reborn. One should not be surprised I guess, Russia was famous for taking original scientific work performed in Russia and changing the names of the scientists if they defected. Perhaps plagerism is no longer a valid concept.