Switzerland is also a home for the Elina Duni Quartet but they have journeyed to that most unknown (to most of us) nation, Albania.

Artists and intellectuals like those from Elina Duni’s family avoided folk music when the commies were running Albania because the songs were twisted and perverted to propaganda, to glorify the state purposes. In fact, they often avoided even Albania itself and Duni was just ten when she left.

With the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and a return to more of a free market and free political system, jazz singer Duni could return to Albania physically and spiritually to find the folk songs of an earlier time.

The results are presented here with all the poignant beauty of a difficult place. There is an aching tenderness to her voice which is well balanced by Colin Vallon’s piano.

Of course if you don’t know the language, her voice can only be another source of beautifully played notes in a quartet. As I listened to the powerful emotions in the singing of these songs I knew I was missing something by not knowing the language.

When I later read the lyrics in the album notes’ English translation, I realized the poetry of sadness and yearning that was present in Albanian culture during and before the communist days. This, alas, was also a country that knew Mussolini’s fascist fist before the iron grasp of communism. What’s to say when your best days were as part of the Ottoman Empire?