Reveries of the Solitary Walker

by Nikola Kodjabashia
ReR Megacorp, Thornton Heath, UK, 2004
CD-ROM,ReR NK1, £11.50
Distributor’s Website: http://www.rermegacorp.com.

Koncert!

by Kampec Dolores + Grensco Istvan
ReR Megacorp, Thornton Heath, UK, 2003
CD-ROM, KampecKoncert, £11.50
Distributor’s Website: http://www.rermegacorp.com.

Reviewed by Mike Mosher
Saginaw Valley State University

mosher@svsu.edu

Two releases from ReR Megacorp allow us to compare and contrast two very different projects from Eastern Europe. Through them, we appreciate a musical legacy of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish and Arabic colors to each disc.

Kodjabashia's Reveries makes use of of Byzantine chants by a Macedonia composer active 200 years ago that were republished and re-transcribed by Nikola's father Iane Kodjabashia. "Cowboyskya" promises an early-Romantic era piano piece until the hand drums come in. Its twangy guitar, like those made famous in Errico Morricone's soundtracks for Westerns, leave traces of the North African influence on Spanish culture in the American southwest. Kodjabashia's "Searching for Young Godot" begins with an uncredited voice. Though the liner notes offer up the disc "In Honorable Memory" of Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, and others, this voice sounds like Joyce reading Finnegan's Wake. The solitary voice is soon accompanied by spies-at-the-carnival bossa nova rhythms and rich merengue saxophones.

"Sugarking" opens with synthesized strings before hand drums set a beat suitable for Egyptian beladi (belly) dancing, and burly men's voices sing in chorus then chant-like monks. "Kinderleid" is short, delicate, and sparse, and "Ave Tatho" is melancholy. Other tracks make use of pizzacato, bowed violins or pop music conventions in a minor key. Reveries' final track "Ludus Gothicus," recorded in a cathedral concert in Macedonia with the Project Z'lust ensemble, dissolves into laughter, whoops, squeals, hollers, and a psychedelic jam that is as chaotic as the Stooges' "L.A. Blues."

Though not solitary walkers, the disc by Kampec Dolores and Grensco Istvan KONCERT! begins with "A Walk," this one a nine-minute dance tune with Grencso's's sophisticated saxophone. Following a spoken intro in Hungarian, Kenderesi Gabi's strong and young-sounding voice soon reminds the reviewer of both Ofra Haza and Delta blues shouters. One likes to imagine this turn as the pulsing night club workout in a Budapest basement, its dance floor crowded with dancers with widespread arms and shaking hips, or as truckdriver music for a crossing of the Caucasus.

Gabi's yips, yodels, and strained falsetto on "Orangeland" reminds the listener that the singer knows her Yoko Ono as much as her Uum Kalthoum. On other tracks it is the rest of the Kampec Dolores band that shines: the very Maghrebi or Bollywood "Ta Naa Ne", the African Highlife guitar-powered"Kalimba." Istvan Grencso's solo free jazz sax intro on "Eye of the Needle" evokes the smokiest existentialist cool of 1950s cinema noir.

Nikola Kodjabashia gives us a classically——and historically——informed concert, while Kampec Dolores' show is that of an urban party band that is rooted in carnivalesque folk traditions as they should be. While Kodjabashia makes skillful use of silences and empty spaces, Kampec Dolores weaves dense and intense party music. Whereas the compositions of Kodjabashia are sometimes contemplative, meditative, and ruminant, Kampec Dolores quickly gets the audience out of their seats and shaking that booty.