Frozen Roses

Interpreter: Ljiljana Buttler
Label: Snail Records
Location: Serbia

The extraordinary voice of Ljiljana Buttler barges into your living room and demands attention. The opening tune on this album features an accompaniment of double bass and that’s it – no decoration, just the dramatic, husky, deep tones of this unique singer. Known as  'Mother of Gypsy Soul', she left the strife-torn Yugoslavia in 1987 and disappeared from music until 2002. Her recording debut came the following year, and this is the follow-up. Heartfelt, melancholy and reflective but never diminished, it’s Balkan gypsy music as you never heard it – leavened with the flavour of pre-war Paris and the post-war Balkans, it’s a tour de force

MG/23.07.2009