Pod Obločkom

Ondrej Druga is a Slovakian accordionist and he and his ‘friends’ are devotees of the richest area of folk music in the country, the mountainous district of Horehronie. This album presents songs from here in professional arrangements, often with piano and organ, both of which are somehow problematic when it comes to traditional music, but they’re played by musicians who know the sources.

Some of the songs have stories attached. One (‘Jednej Krásnej Noci’) comes from a flute player who was imprisoned in Mauthausen concentration camp and reflects his feelings about the 1968 Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia – his archive recording is included. Another (‘Povedste Mojej Materi’) was a favourite from someone who perished in Mauthausen. But these subjects aren’t really explored. Many of the songs are multi-voiced, which is what the region is known for, and these are highlighted in ‘Uboče’ (The Hillside), which works a number of songs from Telgárt and Šumiac together for four singers and instrumentalists, but it sounds stodgy and heavy-handed. Traditional music tethered by over-arrangement.