The new album from Julia Karosi featuring Ben Monder includes a tribute piece to B�la Bart�k, with instrumental themes transcribed for voice from Microcosmos and the Romanian Folk Dances.
Julia Karosi: I always wondered whether music belongs to any of the dimensions as theorized in the standard model in modern physics. I summarized my subjective answer as the title of this album. I believe that music's apparent lack of dimensions pertains to its unique ability to lift us humans into a sphere of existence where we become unaware of time and space. I also believe that these timeless experiences are usually tied to specific events in our lives, - often catching us unawares of their significance - the very moments that make our lives worth living for. I considered some unforgettable moments in my own life with the programmatic titles in my original compositions in this album. Rebirth reflects on the birth of my son followed by Insomnia (obviously), Words and Beyond is a conflict between verbal and non-verbal forms of expression. Madeleine Moment is a musical quote of Marcel Proust's poetic description of involuntary memory in his In Search of Lost Time. In this album I wish to pay a jazz tribute to two of the greatest Hungarian composers of the twentieth century, Bela Bartok and Zolt�n Kodaly with arrangements and jazz transcriptions of their works. I hope they wouldn't mind!
Julia Karosi is one of Hungary's top jazz vocalists. After graduating from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, J�lia founded her own quartet in 2010. Hidden Roots (released in March, 2014 by Dot Time Records, New York) was her second CD as a leader and the follow-up to the successful Stroller of the City Streets (released in February, 2012 by Whereabouts Records, Japan). Hidden Roots contains a number of Julia's original compositions and as the name eludes to, arrangements of Hungarian folk songs.
Karosi has a lovely voice and she uses her instrument with an infectious creative artistry. Her album and its musical choices suggest very clearly that Hungarian traditions are mine seams waiting for the knowing miner. (Jack Goodstein)
