Press Reviews

There’s a deep clarinet solo from Susi Evans that broods and simmers before exploding into a wild klezmer dance to open this brilliant new album from She’Koyokh. 

For those that haven’t yet discovered them, She’Koyokh are London’s best Balkan band, with seven cosmopolitan members and training from top east European artists. This is their fourth release and possibly their best, drawing on Jewish, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian and Turkish tunes played with appropriate virtuosity and skill.

Alongside Evans on clarinet, violinist Meg Hamilton adds sweet solos, particularly on the Albanian song Për Ty Vuaj. And Turkish vocalist Çiğdem Aslan is convincing in several languages. An accomplished and entertaining band who wear their considerable learning lightly.

They might have started out as the She’Koyokh Klezmer Ensemble, but there’s long been more to this UK seven-piece than straight interpretations of Yiddish folk music. With Turkish singer Çiğdem Aslan and Serbian accordeonist Živorad Nikolić amongst their line-up, it could hardly be otherwise.

On this, their fourth album, there are tunes from all over the Balkans, Eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. Klezmer’s still in there too of course. The album’s title refers to Second Avenue Square Dance by US Yiddish legend Dave Tarras, a version of which opens proceedings. But from there on in it’s outwards to all points with Turkish hip-shakers, heart melting Serbian ballads, Bulgarian dance pieces, Albanian melodies.

There are a number of bands ploughing this Romani, Balkan, Eastern European, klez furrow right now, so what makes She’Koyokh stand out? It’s that most simple and obvious of things: they’re just all very, very, good musicians. 

She’Koyokh, the London band who take their name from a Yiddish greeting, are a brilliant live ensemble who effortlessly blend musical flavours from Turkey to Poland while never sounding forced. And where previous She’Koyokh albums have failed to capture the band’s dynamic, First Dance on Second Avenue comes much closer, emphasizing the band’s warmth and diversity.

Album opener ‘Second Avenue Square Dance’ hooks listeners with Susi Evans’ seductive clarinet intro and throughout the album there are passages of fierce, inspired playing: Matt Bacon squeezes out sparks on guitar then conjures beautifully eerie sounds on kaval (a long thin flute), Meg Hamilton’s violin shrieks, weeps and riffs hard, Christina Borgenstierna skillfully works an array of percussion and vocalists Çiğdem Aslan and Živorad Nikolić excel both on solo numbers and in witty duets. Nikolić also plays a tasty accordion.

 The only fault I can find here is the band’s reliance on uptempo numbers when the most powerful (and memorable) tunes are the slow burners ‘Amani on Komitas Krung’ and ‘Sila Kale Bal’. First Dance on Second Avenue is a musical feast: tuck in.

The London-based but multinational She’Koyokh present themselves as a klezmer band - and indeed there are wedding dances and a Dave Tarras overture - but they spread their wings much more widely, across the Balkans and further south-east.

There is a rambunctious Serbian-Turkish father-daughter squabble about who the latter is to marry; “Ghili Bengali" is a Hungarian tune played at impossible speed on the clarinet by Susi Evans; “Yovino Oro” is a breakneck Bulgarian dance.

A cosmopolitan but rooted album.

She’Koyokh, the London band who take their name from a Yiddish greeting, are a brilliant live ensemble who effortlessly blend musical flavours from Turkey to Poland while never sounding forced. And where previous She’Koyokh albums have failed to capture the band’s dynamic, First Dance on Second Avenue comes much closer, emphasizing the band’s warmth and diversity.

Album opener ‘Second Avenue Square Dance’ hooks listeners with Susi Evans’ seductive clarinet intro and throughout the album there are passages of fierce, inspired playing: Matt Bacon squeezes out sparks on guitar then conjures beautifully eerie sounds on kaval (a long thin flute), Meg Hamilton’s violin shrieks, weeps and riffs hard, Christina Borgenstierna skillfully works an array of percussion and vocalists Çiğdem Aslan and Živorad Nikolić excel both on solo numbers and in witty duets. Nikolić also plays a tasty accordion.

 The only fault I can find here is the band’s reliance on uptempo numbers when the most powerful (and memorable) tunes are the slow burners ‘Amani on Komitas Krung’ and ‘Sila Kale Bal’. First Dance on Second Avenue is a musical feast: tuck in.

There's plenty more great musicianship on First Dance on Second Avenue, the fourth album by She'Koyokh, a London-based klezmer/Balkan band. 

They combine breathtaking instrumental skills with lovely vocal performances of well known songs and traditional pieces in Turkish, Serbian, Bulgarian and Yiddish. 

She’Koyokh to Stage Klezmer Gigs (30 Jan 2019).

London-based klezmer and Balkan specialists She’Koyokh play a series of concerts in Scotland next month.She’Koyokh will collaborate with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh and play smaller scale concerts independently.

The full itinerary is Teviot Debating Hall, Edinburgh; Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh; Eastgate Theatre, Peebles; City Halls, Glasgow; Music Hall, Aberdeen; Letham Village Hall, Fife; and Usher Hall, Edinburgh.

The Glasgow concert will be recorded for BBC Radio 3.