Karolina Węgrzyn
She’s a fine singer, her voice moving between Carpathian mountain edginess and something softer. The arrangements, featuring violin, woodwinds, guitar, double bass and her own accordion and hammered dulcimer, have plenty of variety and elegant, mid-to-eastern-European flow and time signatures, and, particularly because of Ann Katherine Jones’s violin and Dominic O’Sullivan’s various reed instruments, sometimes evoke the sinuous warmth of klezmer of which Poland is a historical homeland.
Some of the most striking and original tracks come late in the album. There’s the tense slow drone in the ominous wedding song “Ej Kolem Wionku (Round Wreath)”, about a drunken, abusive husband-to-be:
“A Czyjaż To Rola (Farmer’s Carol)” has accordion ostinato with whistle and strings over a drum pulse, which becomes a hand-drum patter supporting a wild wordless vocal section before multitracked vocals over slow-moving accordion chords. Wegrzyn has a voice of wide range and tone colours, sometimes overlaying vocal parts, and for the Ukrainian title track “Oy Vesna Krasna (Oh Beautiful Spring)” she multitracks acapella.
“Rozczesała Rozpuściła (Wedding Song)” is a strong closer, grainier in texture with her clangorous dulcimer intro, churning accordion and booming bass drum. It’s a wedding song associated with the midnight ritual of removing a bride’s veil as she’s becoming a married woman:
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