In a wave of old time panache and continental cultural collision Annabelle Chvostek returns to the active state of a recording musician with her brand new album STRING OF PEARLS. This is the latest release from a lengthy career that has drawn this Canadian a wealth of acclaim both at home and overseas. While there has always been a streak of folk music in her style albeit frequently sprinkled with eclectic gold dust, this time we are taken on a mystical journey of tango, vaudeville, cabaret and hot swing jazz as the triple heritage of Eastern Europe, Uruguay and Canada are tossed and stirred in a melting pot of mouthwateringly inventive music.
Across the twelve tracks skillfully woven into this collection, Chvostek flits between the English and French language alongside selecting a pair of covers to sit among those she has written including a couple of co-writes. There is something cathartic about listening to a sensual song in another language where the words fuel nothing more than your imagination. 'D'etre humane' is one of three songs sung in French and frequently sits on top of the pile when deciding where the album peaks. For the non-bilingual, 'human being' is the literal translation, just as 'I saw you last night' is for album opener 'Je 't'ais vue heir soir'. The other language deviant is actually one of the covers in 'Belleville Rendezvous'.
For those who picked up on Annabelle Chvostek following her brief stint with Canadian folk band The Wailin' Jennys in the mid 2000s, the journey has been a long winding road of discovery and mystique. This new album is certainly as interesting as her two previous efforts RISE and BE THE MEDIA which both received high praise. She has a wonderful ear for curating a decisive sound and the top team assembled pulls it all together to imprint this album as one of the most fascinating projects to date.
Back to the tracks, and the other cover is a version of the Tom Waites' song 'Just the Right Bullets'. The temptation to play both versions back to back was too tempting to miss and it is probably a compliment to state that Chvostek's effort challenges as much as the original. On a more popular level, 'Walls' has been peeled off for promotional content and creates as much impact as the romantic jazz influenced title track 'String of Pearls'.
The Uruguayan connection starts with long time spouse and collaborator Fernando Rosa and extends to Montivdeo being one of the recording locations with a number of top South American players invited to join in. The Canadian input comes holistically from the production alongside individual contributions. The old world scent is more subtle and likely from a perception of influencing this type of music especially in the way that the distinctly South American bandoneon added to the Waites' cover does have similarities to the accordion and its Eastern European connotations. In the latter stages the accordion is the credited accompaniment to 'The Fool', another track adding weight to this assertion.
In some ways it is not surprising to get something as creatively diverse from Annabelle Chvostek, and the beauty of this album is the way it exhumes music as a unifying experience. Folk conservatism is banished from the room when this Juno nominated singer-songwriter and multi instrumentalist hits the boards. STRING OF PEARLS is a curious step into a widening world, and equates to a release that leads the listener into a cross pollenated world of supremely confident adeptly curated music.
