COMPOSERS: La Kumpania Zelwer
LABELS: Le Chant du Monde
WORKS: Daissa
PERFORMER: La Kumpania Zelwer
CATALOGUE NO: LDX 2741196
JEAN-MARC ZELWER’s French company works in street theatre and circus, with a group of musicians who aren’t so far from klezmer, full of Yiddish and gypsy influences. They make a sharper and livelier impact than Yale Strom’s band, with some particularly flamboyant violin cadenzas.
Zelwer plays a dozen instruments, and at one point strikes up unexpectedly on a santoor which he uses as an informal bridge between India and Europe, just as gypsy music itself is. The final track turns more theatrical, fantastic and, for all its brevity, tragic.