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Ambrozijn : Krakalin (B,2006)***'
I've always admired Tom Theuns talent on stage, in the rehearsal room and in my radioshows because I never saw him play a song exactly the same twice, having so many unique moments (like with the acid folk /folkrock band Dearest Companion, with Dutch, mostly melancholic songs as Tom & Soetkin, ..) and tons of creativity and ideas and new songs. As soon as he was graduated from Conservatorium, Ambrozijn became his main project, and everything was even more serious. I haven’t followed his whole career, (too many other musical interests) but now we have already a 6th release since then which is about time to check out the evolution. As had happened before Folk master Gabriel Yacoub (from the biggest classic French folkrock band Mallicorne & solo), who had become a good friend, produced this Ambrozijn album also. His perfect production vision is surely noticeable, even when the core is from the group themselves.
There is great variety in the songs as if the group tends to show deliberately its variety, but the songs hang together very well. There are two songs sung in Antwerp dialect (one of them an unknown, old song, which is so called as a traditional), a few songs are in French (the group loves to go to France, play there and discover the local folk), and one is in English. Also the voice of Tom shows a great (improved) variety in colour and expression. None of the songs go very deep into the emotions, except with some theatrical, artistic purpose. There are a few returning themes (like the Antwerp songs which are related to the harbour) but it seems as if they preferred to show more variety with technical skil and an entertaining nature. The musical basis is of a more folk styles interest without really belonging strictly to any particular style or movement. The song “Sur la rive gauche” for me has the richest emotionality with a beautifully coloured voice. Vera Coomans is a guest on some songs and she almost stand for that warm kind of melancholy. The great track, “How Far are we near” has besides a vocal, a complete string arrangement by talented violinist Wouter Vandenabeele. Third member is Wim Claeys, on diatonic accordion. There's also some contribution on upright bass by Arne Van Dongen and percussion by Stephan Pougin, which I found especially noticeable on "L'Avion". Most songs are relatively short, and are played with fast or compact arrangements so much so that I hardly got the time to notice all details after the first listen. I highly enjoyable album.
PS. In 2002 they also worked together with Paul Rans, a renowned traditional singer & lute player for a project called the duke of Bruynswick or "De Hertog Van Brunswyk", a medieval tale of 65 couplets, with an album I have not heard yet.
