- Cloud Valley Music website -
- Andrew Cronshaw website -
- Andrew Cronshaw MySpace -

- Back to Reviews Introduction page -

Written in fRoots issue 201, 2000

KROKE
The Sounds Of The Vanishing World
Oriente RIEN CD 24 (1999)

Kroke’s previous album, recorded live in England at the Pit, was an absolute gem of Polish Klezmer soul and modern adventurousness. Further British shows since then have seen them consistently deliver that exquisite balance between fireworks and slow, sad intensity.
      This new release was made in the studio back home in Cracow, the city from which the trio, violin/viola player Tomasz Kukurba, accordeonist Jerzy Bawol and bassist Tomasz Lato, takes its name. It’s a beautifully recorded piece of work with its own splendours, and further widens the territory, but overall in contrast to Live At The Pit it seems measured and self-conscious. Perhaps it’s the lack of the extra spark and focus that a live audience, even the tiny one at the Pit, brings, perhaps it’s the attempt to express themes like Air, Fire, Water and the title track, but this time there does seem to be rather an imbalance of impressionistic floating as against hard melody.
      In an uncharacteristic lurch into cliché, Time has, yes, a clock ticking, not just as an intro but right through the track and, of course, its alarm rings at the end. That’s the second appearance on my current review rack of a “whassat?...jump-up...oh, dammit, it’s on the track” nerve-jangling bell, and it’s not kind, guys; in fact it means that there’s six minutes of this album with the power to irritate, so the whole thing gets played less than it would.
      They’re still magnificent, though, and there’s much here that does hit the spot. The playing throughout is luscious, and Bawol’s Love (Lullaby for Kamilla), for example, shows their ability to compose a heartbreaking tune.


© 2000 Andrew Cronshaw
 

You're welcome to quote from reviews on this site, but please credit the writer and fRoots.

Links:
fRoots - The feature and review-packed UK-based monthly world roots music magazine in which these reviews were published, and by whose permission they're reproduced here.

It's not practical to give, and keep up to date, current contact details and sales sources for all the artists and labels in these reviews, but try Googling for them, and where possible buy direct from the artists.
CDRoots.com in the USA, run by Cliff Furnald, is a reliable and independent online retail source, with reviews, of many of the CDs in these reviews; it's connected to his excellent online magazine Rootsworld.com 

For more reviews click on the regions below

NORDIC        BALTIC        IBERIA (& islands)   

CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE, & CAUCASUS   

OTHER EUROPEAN        AMERICAS        OTHER, AND WORLD IN GENERAL

- Back to Reviews Introduction page -