Dr. Rhythm Newsletter, CD review >>
I was surprised to see this CD, subtitled La Danza Apocalypsa Balcanica--Part Two, assuming the band had all committed suicide after volume one, which posited they were partying at the end of time and there was literally no tomorrow. But here's another helping of desperation, this time from the morning after the apocalypse. There's an old Spanish proverb that "Part Two is never any good" (although Don Quixote put the lie to that), so it is with trepidation that I stick this second part of the dance of death into the player. It starts theatrically with howling dogs, ominous bowed bass notes, a distant violin, a tentative clarinet melody, the tension is palpable. After three minutes it snaps and we are in an old-time ballad. The music is very theatrical and doesn't have many traces of Serbian folk music, though the band are based in Novi Sad, the capital of Pannonian Serbia. Chamber music by survivors who never thought they be able to sit and tootle pretty melodies again, so their nostalgic waltzes are tinged with sadness. The whole thing is very downtempo and mournful but meditative, with beautiful melodies that occasionally suggest a tango or a samba (except when they make the dogs howl). After an hour of longing and regret we hear some birds singing, so the world is put right again.
Copyright © 2003 by Alastair Johnston. Feel free to forward to friends but please respect my copyright and ask before reprinting. 06/01/03
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