La Kumpania Zelwer
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La Kumpania Zelwer
Daissa (Tziganes Imaginaries) (Chant du Monde)
$17.99

Daïssa is a Gypsy word meaning ‘yesterday ’and ‘tomorrow ’and thus provides the perfect title for an album that harkens to the past yet sounds thoroughly contemporary. La Kumpania Zelwer combines elements of street theater and circus alongside vibrant music from the Gypsy tradition with references to Indian,Yiddish and Breton culture. Bandleader Jean-Marc Zelwer is a multi-talented musician who has even gone so far as to create his own instruments to get a specific sound he’s after. There are no limits to Zelwer ’s fertile imagination.

Listen:
Birobidjan
Balagan
Lekhayim
Le roi de Schnorrers

" Kumpania Zelwer is the brainchild of composer and multi-multi-instrumentalist Jean-Marc Zelwer. Zelwer plays everything from nyckelharpa to santur to glass xylophone. His eight-piece band plays everything from washboard to toy piano to singing saw. This eclectic assortment of household appliances would yields a colorful pastiche of sound. Zelwer and company use these and more conventional weapons of mass construction such as accordion, cello, trumpet, violin, and tuba to create a sound that mixes elements of klezmer, cabaret, and street theater, with touches of Gypsy and Breton music for good measure. Daissa is a wild ride and one well worth taking... Zelwer has created street shows using dozens of musicians and has made a career of writing music for the stage. The theatre that is in his blood translates quite successfully to disc. He uses the sounds at his disposal as an impressionist painter might have used various brush strokes and combinations of color. The result is a richly textured canvas with all of the emotional impact of the best art." - Peggy Latkovich (Read the full review in RootsWorld)

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