Customer Reviews

Wintersongs

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I bought this for my Mother for Christmas after I heard it on National Public Radio...

My mother has never been happier!

The melodies are haunting! dreamy! Spectacular! I've heard that this is the better CD of the three Kitka that I purchased, but I don't recall the other titles...

How refreshing to confer the full five for Kitka's, Wintersongs. Most of this repetoire expresses traditional songs from countries around the Black Sea. The ensemble of eight women deliver songs that are thematically tied by their winter theme. however, as another reviwer aptly says it, this is so sprightly a set that it befits the entire year. I certainly won't be reserving it for the leaner months. To a novice, like me, unversed in the languages, the songs seem to fit together perfectly.

What a cool CD. A women's choir from Eastern Europe singing some terrific winter themed songs. Fascinating chords & rhythms, beautifully sung.

I was first introduced to Kitka in 2006 in a women's choir in college. We sang a few of their songs from this CD and I HAD to get it! I love this music SO MUCH! It is so unlike anything other music, but is extremely moving and envigorating. BUY this CD!! Nectar is just as good too.

I'd like to give you my first impression of Kitka when I first heard Shira Cion and Julia Graffagna being interviewed on Weekend All Things Considered on NPR.

[stunned silence]
[pick jaw up off floor]
[run to computer to order this CD]
[check their website for their next show]

Do while breath=true
[go to next show]
[meet truly great people]
Loop

Yeah, that's about right. I have the great fortune of living in the same state as this lovely and talented group of women, so I get to see them 2-3 times a year. You should all be so lucky.

Check out their schedule at www.kitka.org, and make some time in your calendar to have the power and beauty that is Kitka fill your heart.