Book of Angels brilliance.

While searching for one of my favourite orchestral bands yesterday I came across their latest recording from June. The band would be the Crakow Klezmer Band….. And wow. What an album it turned out to be!

John Zorn has written a 300-piece magnus opus known as the Book of Angels which is broken down into several volumes performed by different musical combos. So far there have been six volumes of approximately 8-10 songs released on cd.

How lucky that Crakow Klezmer was invited to record Balan: Book of Angels Volume 5. Given the yiddish/jewish influence readily apparent in even the jazzier performances of Zorn’s works in Volume 1 (the only other volume I’ve heard so far) – the choice of this ensemble makes a lot of sense to the music.

This truly is a stunning album – rife with driven strings, ephemeral melodies and muttering spirits…. delivered by high-calibre performers who give the works enough space to be fully heard. There’s a lot going on here, but it never feels crowded or overworked and the end result is a delightful soaring of the heart, while chills run up the spine. Dark angels present indeed.

It’s no wonder that the Crakow Klezmer band made it onto my list of 100-things to live for and finding this album has renewed their place. Thanks Giles for the introduction to such fine art. Such intelligent feeling. Such expansion of the musical landscape….