Haivka

Yurodny are an experimental music ensemble based in Ireland, with an interest in reconfiguring and reimagining the music of other cultures, in this case the music of Ukraine. They cover a lot of ground in a space of under an hour.

Beginning with some village polyphony sung by three women, most of this CD is an enjoyable, if rather meandering, succession of genres jostling for position, including noodly jazz piano, brass-band laments and grandiloquent violin gestures. It's a live recording, with strings, brass, keyboards and percussion enriched by electronics produced through a rather mysterious-sounding set of ‘sensor interfaces that map physical gestures in real time,’ which would be interesting to see in action. However, the actual sonic results are fascinating, and the high point of the set is the closer, a three-movement composition by Alla Zagaykevych, which benefits from a firm sense of direction and organisational form lacking in the more ramshackle pieces that precede it. Her knitting together of a folkloric inspiration with tense, dramatic instrumental and electronic arrangements repays close listening, and provides a tough but rewarding finale to the more straightforward earlier pieces.