This collaboration with triple-threat Alan Bern (accordion, piano, compositions), of Brave Old World
fame, has resulted in Accordance, on Winter and Winter, which was chosen as one of the
top ten releases of 2001, by Klezmershack.
For more reviews of Accordance, please see the following: All About Jazz
ALAN BERN & GUY KLUCEVSEK "Accordance" (Winter & Winter, Germany) CD $15.99
These two are at the absolute height of their profession. I can
think of none more proficient, skillful, diverse and adept in the
small accordion-playing world. Here, you get them in stereo:
Bern in one channel, Klucevsek in the other. And when they both
get boiling, it's hard to tell exactly how many accordions are in the
room. Bern's compositions are greatly different from Klucevsek's.
While Klucevsek, puckish, uses complex 'ethnic' riffs and melodies
(or distills them), Bern derives his compositions from deep blues,
the dark corner of the soul. This is especially obvious on 'Angel
Blues', a remarkable bit of extreme soul wrung from such an
unwieldy machine. 'Starting Over', the centerpiece, goes from
near-stillness to a religious intensity: swelling plumes, billowing
clouds of compounded notes make the two an absolute choir.
Bern (from the klezmer group Brave Old World) also plays the
piano, his compositions introspective and airy. I'm also guessing
he uses this as an opportunity to make music not touched by
klezmer's wild sadnesses and frenzies. Klucevsek's pieces are
the jauntiest, though unforgivably titled with some of the worst
puns ('Life, Liberty and Prosciutto Happiness' being the standout
'ugh'-inciter). Together, they sweep you up, carrying you on hard
currents of sound. It rates very high among the best accordion
CDs I've ever heard. othermusic.com
Guy and Alan's MySpace Page
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