Kayah & Bregovic [Import]

Goran Bregovic, Kayah | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 22, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Ariola Germany
• ASIN: B00000JP49
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,068 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #29 in Music > World Music > Europe > Eastern Europe > Poland
  • #47 in Music > Imports > International

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When's the last time you thought of the tuba as a cool instrument? Well, Bosnian composer Goran Bregovic certainly has--he made it the centerpiece of this stunning collection of music on which he and Polish singer Kayah collaborated. Here an exotic Eastern-tinged mix of old-world Polish folk, Byzantine and Yiddish sounds, and dance beats swirl together for a most original portrait of alternative Polish music. No wonder this release is Poland's biggest-selling album ever. Masterfully it emanates the haunting darkness of Eastern Europe with violin, oud, guitar, and tuba while travailing the border of the contemporary pop world. Bregovic expertly twists the fat beats around the fiddles and Near East finger bells on "Spij Kochanie, Spij," while he somehow pulls out a heavy, infectious dance groove from a tuba on "100 Lat." On the dramatically bold "Jesli Bóg Istnieje," Yemenite singer Ofra Haza is paid tribute for a passionately melancholy song evoking the dignity and pain of peasant Europe. Kayah's voice is nothing less than powerful and emotive--effortless in its reach to tenderness on "Ta-Bakiera," playfully energetic on "Prawy do Lewego," and bemoaning, mystical, and fervent on most every other tune. A wondrous album not to be missed. --Karen Karleski

Product Description

1. Spij kochanie spij
2. To nie ptak
3. 1000 lat mlodej parze
4. Bylam roza
5. Trudno kochac
6. Prawy do lewego
7. Ta-bakiera
8. Caje Sukarije
9. Jesli Bog istnieje
10. Nie ma, nie ma ciebie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best-seller for a reason, November 30, 1999

By 

R. A. Bosch (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kayah & Bregovic (Audio CD)

I had the chance to borrow this CD from my new housemate, and I have just ordered it myself. It's an excellent CD that deserves to be a best-seller outside Poland. It offers a good balance between very strong ballads (with a relatively important role for a cello (?)) and some very nice up-tempo songs, some of which sound more Mediterrenean than Polish (one song mentions Ofra Haza in the credits). The CD has a traditional and ethnic feel about it, but it sounds modern at the same time (without being over-produced like some remix projects). A definite must-have if you like World Music!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bregovic, the genius from Balkan, October 23, 2000

By 

smiljan spasojevic (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kayah & Bregovic (Audio CD)

This CD is more than very good! Goran Bregovic is without a doubt the greatest rock and ethnic music composer that Balkan ever had! In this excellent CD,he blended the styles of Serbian, Polish, and Russian Gypsies with his old rock hits from his ex band Bijelo Dugme [the most popular rock band in Yugoslavia ever].Bregovic also picked the two very popular Serbian Gypsy songs and he arranged them in Polish-Serbian style, which only he could make.The sound of Serbian traditional brass band with oriental style of improvisations, makes this CD an incredible state of the art of Eastern-European ethnic and Gypsy music! His arrangements are excellent and one more time he showed his enormous talent for ethnic music from Balkan and Eastern Europe. The voice of Polish singress Kayah is very powerful and deeply emotional, but in songs of Bregovic, sounds even more deep and compassionate.His melodies are full of deep emotions and magic, wraped in truly Balkan traditional arrangements, most of the time the Gypsy style. I recommend this album to all people who like the traditional and ethnic music, especially from Balkan. And whatever Bregovic composes or rearranges, that will always be fascinating and interesting, without a doubt!! SMILJAN...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't stop listening to it, October 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Kayah & Bregovic (Audio CD)

I encountered this recording in Poland this summer. I first heard it while riding on a bus, then heard the "hit single" Prawy do Lewego in a restaurant played by the house band. Then bought it in the Katowice train station! If you like Europop, if you like contemporary gypsy music, if you like Polish goralski music, you will like this. The last track is the song Erdelezi, which is on several other Bregovic recordings (from the movie "Time of the Gypsies.") Here Kayah, a Polish gypsy, sings it in Polish.