Reviews

Artist: Ballroom Quartet
Album: Best Of
Label: Munich
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.ballroomquartet.com

In for a penny…in for a pound - that’s what I told myself when this CD landed on my doorstep.

I like a bit of a challenge particularly when it comes to my broad appreciation of anything remotely connected with folk and acoustic music. I’m pleased to say that gut instincts play a big part in my personal make-up and with Ballroomquartet it’s paid off handsomely.

I don’t really know where to begin with Andries Boone (mandolin/violin/guitar and vocals), Rony Deprins (accordion/synths/theremin/vocoder and voices), Michael Donckers (electric bass and clarinet) and Geert Marien (drums) but at least the instrumental line-up intrigued me enough to give it a spin. And boy, am I pleased I did.

I’m a big fan of the music provided for Cirque Du Soliel in as much as their quirky ‘circus’ style performance mixed with an almost ‘folky’ quality is truly inspirational. The same could be said for this quartet whose cross-over comes from a jazz background and I could hear this music performed whilst you’re enjoying a cup of hot, black coffee outside a Paris café admiring the Seine or, just as easily a Galoises smoke filled club with nubile young women proffering their wares…cigarettes that is! Well, a man can dream can’t he?

With the current trend for all things ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ lightening the load of the great British public I can’t think of a better way to chill out.

Peter Fyfe

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