"Sounds from a Bygone Age, Vol. 3"

Romanian legend Dona Dumitru Siminica sang like a heavy-set woman slinking through the dark of a smoky tavern. In reality, he was a dapper, mustachioed man with a suit and thinning hair. His husky, alien falsetto, presented here from recordings made in the 1960s, made the somber Gypsy crooner a heartthrob in Iron-Curtain Bucharest. The songs on "Sounds from a Bygone Age, Vol. 3" (Asphalt Tango Records, 2 ½ stars) are gauzy tearjerkers that Siminica sang in pubs, cafes and on the radio. The vocals, along with accordion and violin flow like sap, while the jangling cymbalom tumbles, clatters and completely intensifies the surreal sense of lovesick confusion that pervades every note.