The Cracow Klezmer Band - Bereshit (2003)

Another fine contribution from Jonatan from Poland, again concerning the superb Cracow Klezmer Band (now become The Bester Quartet - for more info check the preceding post), surely one of the most interesting groups in contemporary Jewish music. If their 2001 effort, The Warriors, was a really enjoyable album, this 2003 release, Bereshit, is if possible even better, showing the band fully at ease on a wider palette. Many thanx, pal!

«If some klezmer groups seem like they're trying to overtake you on the inside, exhaust pipe dragging the tarmac, The Cracow Klezmer Band are the Rolls Royce purring down the fast lane. There may only be four of them (violin, accordion, percussion, bass) but crucially they make a glorious sound. The CKB were founded in 1997 by young accordionist Jarosław Bester, who has taken Astor Piazzolla's liberating approach to writing tangos and applied it to his own Jewish compositions. On "Israel's Tears" a ghostly clarinet shudders below an accordion somehow made to imitate little bells, before the group slam headlong into a grinding yet exhilarating lament. Gnashing of teeth never sounded so good. Grażyna Auguścik adds beautiful wordless vocals to "The Migration of Souls", and the album climaxes with its boldest piece, the title track "Bereshit", meaning "In the Beginning". Recorded in Krakow synagogue, it's darkly passionate portrayal of the creation of the word.» (Clive Bell, The Wire, March 2004, from the band's own website)

Link in comments (as always, appreciated)