Isle of Klezbos Albums

GREETINGS FROM THE ISLE OF KLEZBOS:
Greetings from IOK

  • OutMusic Award nominee, Outstanding Producer: 2004
  • WRUW World Music Chart #1, July 2003
  • OutVoice Top 40, 2003
  • Featured full-length profile in The Advocate, June 2003
  • All-Music Guide Expert Review Pick, 2003

    Isle of Klezbos: Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos - Isle of Klezbos shares their wide-ranging tastes and astonishing chops in an array of raucous dances, modal trances, soaring Yiddish swing solos, haunting lullaby, and brand-new originals. The much-anticipated debut full-length album by New York's notorious and much-loved all-star, all-female klezmer sextet deftly explores a musical panorama including innovative live-performance bonus tracks and lesser-known klezmer gems. The group proudly acknowledges their entertainment value while creating work that is also beautiful, plaintive and vibrant. Groove-oriented meditations, a catchy & irony-tinged post-modern waltz, revamped high-energy classics, and even klezmerengue keep the listening landscape eclectic and everchanging. All in a CD enwrapped by fabulous graphics, full lyrics & translation, and lovingly lucid liner notes, with extra-special back cover guest artwork by Alison Bechdel (Dykes To Watch Out For).

    • TRACKS:
    1. Houdini Hora
    2. Goldene Khasene (golden wedding)
    3. Revery in Hijaz
    4. Klezbos Kolomeyke
    5. Rachelle's Doyna Indigo
    6. Klezmerengue
    7. Abrah
    8. Unter Beymer (under the trees)
    9. East Hapsburg Waltz
    10. Szol A Kakas Mar - LIVE
    11. Revery Reprise - LIVE
    12. Father's Cadenzas
    13. My Father's Nigun
    14. Abi Gezunt Medley - LIVE
    Listen to audio clips now at www.cdbaby.com/cd/isleofklezbos or at http://myspace.com/klezbos


    "an astonishing array of styles... as good as I think Metropolitan Klezmer is, well, IOK is every bit as talented (the presence of several key Metropolitan Klezmer players pretty much ensures that) and in some ways even more fun... If Eve Sicular keeps this up, she's gonna have to put me on payroll, I guess, because the music she's involved with is always so good that my reviews end up reading like press releases instead of criticism. Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos is no exception."
    - Shaun Dale, Cosmik Debris

    "Isle of Klezbos play modern klezmer like it's going out of fashion (which it most certainly ain't)... I cannot fail to be moved by the sheer emotion in the music. The album closes with a clutch of well-recorded live tracks which demonstrate why the group have built such an avid following even before releasing this, their debut album."
    - Phat Planet World Music [U.K.]

    "To understand the group's broad appeal, check out the diverse musical infuences on its debut CD... The bouncy 'East Hapsburg Waltz,' written by Sicular, has accordionist Rachelle Garniez throwing in a riff from The Godfather. 'Klezmerengue' includes Latin dance-hall sounds -- the Lower East Side meets Loisaida. Then there's the sultry style of vocalist Deborah Karpel..."
    - Kate Walter, The Advocate

    "The whole band is excellent and plays with a tightness that gives one a feel for how traditional klezmer sounded outside the recording studio, when it was played... as Jews joined the influx of immigrants ... a new Jewish culture busy being born."
    - Ari Davidow, KlezmerShack.com

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