Wintersongs

Kitka | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 2, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Kitka
• ASIN: B00011D03C
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,172 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant performances in a superb recording., December 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Wintersongs (Audio CD)

Kitka's best ever. Although it's a collection of winter holiday songs, I will listen to it all year.

The vocal technique is breathtaking. Each singer's voice is unique so sometimes a careful listener can pick out individuals. At other times the voices blend together into a single instrument. On some tracks the vocalists perform instrumental parts so effectively that one forgets one is listening to human voices.

It's creative, different, unique, and almost unbearably beautiful.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly recorded performances, January 6, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wintersongs (Audio CD)

Kitka is a remarkable women's vocal ensemble of eight sophisticated singers who blend contemporary sensibility with specialized vocal techniques that have been distilled in Eastern Europe for centuries. Wintersongs features an impressive repertoire whose individual selections range from Bulgaria to Belarus and from Georgia to Greece. The twenty numbers comprising this enthusiastically recommended CD album that includes "Aliolo" from Georgia's Racha region is a traditional Christmas Eve song performed by masked carolers who are rewarded with drink and treats, and such superlative numbers as "Av Jerusalime" from Southern Russia and the Ukraine. Songs from Lativa, Moravia, Romania, Hungary, Belarus, Macedonia, and Israel are superbly recorded performances that will introduce American audiences to traditional music, some of which has their origins in antiquity. If you only have time for one new CD, then make it Wintersongs as sung by Kitka and recorded by Diaphonica.

5.0 out of 5 stars once in a blue moon, December 4, 2010

By 

Michael Landes (California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wintersongs (Audio CD)

It's rare to find me so enthusiastic about a record.
This is absolutely wonderful. Period.
I am a specialist in Eastern European traditional music.
But this particular record is probably the record I would
use to introduce the average music listener to that world.
Not only that, I would consider it a perfect gift for the
holidays to a record listener who had no interest in Eastern
European music at all. It's just the loveliest seasonal record
I can think of, and likely to appeal to absolutely anybody who
listens to music, regardless of type. Kitka is unique in that
their performances are scrupulously authentic, yet not museum pieces
in any sense of the world, they are imbued with the spirit of
this one-of=a=kind American group based in Oakland, CA. It's that
indefinable american=ness that I think makes this palatable to
even those who would find actual Eastern European performances
alien-sounding. And yet, as I say, they are scrupulously authentic
in approach and in fact are held in very high regard by the folk
establishements of the various Eastern European countries they
represent, and have performed there as honored guests. Please
give this a try. I predict you'll soon be looking them up on
google to find a live performance you can attend. By the way,
they have many fine records, but .................. I really think
this is the one.