Vortex jazz club /cd-reviews/upside-down

Evelyn Petrova and Alexander Balanescu

Upside Down

Leo Records CD LR 489

It’s taken accordionist/singer Evelyn Petrova quite a while to find a suitable duo partner with whom to record a follow-up to her previous Leo recording, Year’s Cycle, but in Romanian violinist Alexander Balanescu she has proved that wait was worthwhile: his contributions to her music are at once subtle and powerful, his swooping, earnest, occasionally almost ethereal violin providing a highly effective contrast to the more ‘human’ sounds of her instrument, in either its rhythm-section role or in solo flights.

Petrova’s music is more deeply rooted in folk dance rhythms than that of, say, Richard Galliano, and her vocal effects are utterly original whether she’s floating her voice over a vigorous rhythm (‘Journey’) or chattering with Balanescu over crowd noises (‘Torn Dress’); overall, this is utterly personal but intensely communicative music, at times exhilarating in its straightforward freshness and vitality, at others (particularly in the album’s most dramatic piece, ‘Dream’) taking on an almost brooding quality. An elegant, accomplished duo, playing wholly original music with passion and commitment.