You Will Never Die!

Clarinettist Yom's second project with his band The Wonder Rabbis comes seven years after the first one. In between, he's released a collaborative album with Chinese Jew's harp player Wing Li, an attempt at American folk music, and even tried his hand at French electro-jazz. This discography gives you an idea of what kind of an artist he is.

On You Will Never Die!, Yom retains the klezmer core that he knows so well and embellishes it with a wealth of instrumentation. Each song rumbles with a primal energy created by the talented Wonder Rabbis: Sylvain Daniel on bass; Guillaume Magne on guitar; Leo Jassef on keyboards; Mathieu Penot on drums; and Aurélien Nafrichoux also on guitar. They are carnival-like in energy, though with an unnerving darkness that unsettles that carnival spirit.

The album is strongest, however, in the peaks and troughs of the carnival roller-coaster ride. On the title-track, there is a raucous burst of electric guitar that surprises and lifts the whole song, while on ‘Kiss Me Goodbye’, the slower, more tentative style is a welcome relief from the intensity of the rest. Although captivating, the album could be better if Yom had imbued it with more moments like these.