| For many people, Transylvania is associated mainly with the activities of the infamous Count Dracula, rather than with the fascinating music which comes from this region... |
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"Enchanted by a woman whose music gave voice to
something so eternal and ancient, I listened as the young and the old, the new and the
forever, collided and merged. The alchemy of musical genius."
Nora Guthrie, Woody Guthrie Productions |
Anti von Klewitz and her band Csókolom play music from the heart of Eastern Europe. The violinist absorbed the gypsy music from the Balkans and Hungary at an early age and explores the essence of the music in an exciting and original way - a new voice fusing styles and trends.
With her spirited amalgam of gypsy-styled Hungarian, Balkan, klezmer and gypsy-swing music Anti awakens the slumbering Slavic soul of the listener - with passion, humor, a voice that grabs you and a virtuoso band that rocks.
Anti von Klewitz grows up with her violin in former Yugoslavia, and absorbs the local Gypsy music from Hungary and the Balkans. She starts a nomadic carreer with Hungarian musicians and plays on stages between Australia and France. In between she fineshes her classical education in Berlin, Germany and studies jazz under Coltrane bass player Reggie Workman. She plays violin in a Cuban-styled Charanga orchestra and dicovers the subtleties of salsa. Then she starts a band of her own: Csókolom . The Eastern European repetoire gets a boost by Anti's secret recipe: gypsy-swing, klezmer roots, a good portion of earthy blues feeling, a teaspoon of salsa and her voice - referred to as "Patti Smith of the Balkans". Csókolom is discovered in the US, enters the studio and gets worldwide acclaim.
"...an exciting quartet, unique in the world." NRC-Handelsblad, Dutch national newspaper
"...Wonderfully raw instrumental playing of Hungarian and Balkan dances, songs sung in Hungarian, Romanian and Romany... Some very unusual repertoire, well played and strongly recommended." The Rough Guide to World Music, 2nd ed.
"This CD offers a generous feast of 20 tracks of furious, charismatic and inventive music...a coherent and enchanting release of 'world music', clearly rooted in tradition"
Dirty Linen, USA
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| For many people, Transylvania is associated mainly with the activities of the infamous Count Dracula, rather than with the fascinating music which comes from this region... |
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More details about the music, where it comes from and how Csókolom plays it.
| "Gino's La Boheme" is the kind of Berlin dive where earlier you might have imagined rear tables occupied by spies, smugglers, and assorted femmes fatales, engaged in various types of "East-West negotiations". Despite or maybe because of the fall of the Wall that's still the case... |
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A hilarious story by Rob List - how it all began.
Read some press quotes on the CD and the concerts here.