New Release: HALVA
The international ensemble Halva around the Belgian violinist Nicolaas Cottenie is on the trail of the diverse connections between traditional Yiddish music and the music of Southeastern Europe.
The result is energetic, joyful and lively music that often invites you to dance, but every now and then takes on a more serious, withdrawn tone. The sound is rather untypical for Balkan or Yiddish bands and corresponds more to that of a classical ensemble or an acoustic jazz band.
Release: Halva Scorebook (notes)
With his international ensemble HALVA, Nicolaas Cottenie investigates the links between traditional Yiddish music and the music of the many cultures surrounding the Ashkenazim (the Yiddish-speaking Jews in Eastern-Europe): Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Rumanian, Middle Eastern and Western Classical Music. Cottenie's original, surprising and expressive compositions push the boundaries of sound and genre.
The “Halva Scorebook” is a collection of 23 compositions that Halva presented on the two albums “The Sweetest Klezmer Orchestra” (2019) and “Dinner In Sofia” (DANZ114, 2021).
Digital release: TERRA ANATOLIA
The Duo Ergün Aktoprak and Jürgen Dahmen are presenting their new music project under the album title “Terra Anatolia”. As a singer and as a pianist, they set out into the musical expanses of Anatolia to track down traditional sources of bard and folk music. Inspired by the wealth of traditional songs and poetry, a diverse section of this musical culture was created, capturing moods from melancholy to mystical.
The album has been released only digitally. Please use the relevant portals and platforms for download and streaming.
Release: KROKE
After the film music for "Cabaret of Death" (RIENCD85, 2015), which was much more than a background soundtrack, Kroke have turned to the stage with a new project. Kroke's ability to express moods and feelings in her music serves not only as a foil for a dramatic event, but as reinforcement, compression and interpretation.
This album features music composed for the theatre production „Rejwach” - a stage adaptation of Mikołaj Grynberg’s book by the same title which premiered in October 2018 in the Ester Rachel and Ida Kamińska Jewish Theatre in Warsaw.
Release: DANIEL KAHN
On his new album BULAT BLUES Daniel Kahn devotes himself to the "Georges Brassens of the Soviet Union", Bulat Okudzhava, in new, own adaptations in English and a touch of Russian. Daniel Kahn is accompanied by the virtuoso Moscow musician Vanya Zhuk on the Russian 7-string guitar.
Georgian-Armenian Moscovite Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (1924-1997), spiritual father of all Russian guitar bards, is nearly unanimously adored in Russia and the post-Soviet diaspora.
Available on CD and on Vinyl