Zipserim

At the Czech Music Crossroads conference in Ostrava, one of the most surprising and interesting groups was the Mojše Band playing Jewish music from Slovakia. They are a trio, with leader Michal Paľko on cimbalom and vocals, František Kubiš on accordion and Jakub Stračina on double bass, and they made one hell of a part . The substantial Jewish population of Ostrava and Spiš (Zips in Yiddish), a region of Slovakia, was devastated in World War II, so what they are doing on Zipserim is essentially an imaginative reconstruction. ‘We have not reconstructed, revived or imitated anything,’ they say. ‘We have been looking for a connection between us and those that are not here anymore, but have left us with this heritage.’

Much of the Jewish culture of Spiš was Hassidic, so there are several nigun melodies, wordless prayers including ‘Kazak’, which develops into ‘Wygoda Tanz’ with a strong character of roughly played local highland music (gorale). The band are much closer to a folk group than a klezmer band. But there's music here from many sources and this album is too long, lacking any consistency of approach. Paľko's cimbalom skills are formidable, but sometimes his enthusiasm overrides his singing ability . That said, they're great live and are clearly doing really interesting work in a little-known area.