Album Notes

Beauty and Truth; Eternity and Transience; Eros and Logos; Thanatos and Infinite Longing... The Olympian gods have passed from the world of men long ago. But what law ever dictated that man cannot create new gods?

Kakalla is an ensemble dedicated to the fusion of jazz improvisation with chamber music, rock, the avant-garde, Balkan folk music, and other ethnic influences. Their debut CD "The Voice of Blood" was released on Weltschmerz records in 2001, follwed by "The Voice of Twilight" in 2003. Musically, the group performs all original material, with a view to combining intricate composition with the freedom of individual and collective improvisation. As the group's composer and leader, Thomson Kneeland cites specific influences such as traditional and modern Bulgarian music, Greek rembetika, Albanian folk music, rock, and the avant-garde as being essential to the group's musical aesthetic, as well as composers Shostakovich, Lou Harrison, and Piazzolla, to name a few. The ensemble's goal is not to authenticate or reproduce a musical tradition, but to interpret and fuse seemingly disparate traditions into a single "folk" music: the Kakalla, a music intensely personal and indicative of the members' life experiences.