Review | Songlines

Félix Lajkó & Vołosi

Top of the World

Rating: ★★★★★

View album and artist details

Album and Artist Details

Artist/band:

Félix Lajkó

Label:

Fonó

November/2019

The opening of this album sounds like you've stumbled into an astonishing cadenza in the middle of a violin concerto. On ‘Speedmotion’, violinist Félix Lajkó races up the violin, down again, throws in a fistful of double and triple stops and then, after a moment's pause, launches into a ferocious chase accompanied by the Vołosi musicians.

This is a remarkable meeting of string players with outstanding ability and an innate theatricality. The Serbian-Hungarian Lajkó is one of Europe's most remarkable virtuosi, but always on his own terms. He's played with the Balkan brass of the Boban Marković Orkestar and as a duo with viola player Antal Brasnyó. Here, in a project initiated by Budapest Ritmo Festival, he plays with the five-strong Polish string band Vołosi, who bring their own panache to the music. It shouldn't work, but it defiantly does. They were astonishing on stage and now the record has soared in the two main European World Music charts.

Tracks like ‘Speedmotion’, ‘From the Ditch’ and ‘Downhill’ suggest the default is to play as fast as possible, but thankfully there's poetry and reflection too in the pizzicato-led ‘Upside Down’, playful ‘Valse’ and expansive ‘Slowmotion’. Although none of the players are Roma, this music fits beautifully into the rich and showy Hungarian tradition of Gypsy music in Central Europe.

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