If there are musical sounds or instruments from a continent that was missed on this excitedly diverse album, please let me know. The ten piece band TribeCastan is co-led by John Kruth and Jeff Greene, who play instruments ranging from mandolin to penny whistle to baglamas to Jew’s harp and a bunch of stringed or reeded instruments that occasionally appear on National Geographic or the Bizarre Food channel. The rest of the team brings in a collection of saxes, flutes, percussion things that go bump in the night along with jazz brass and bass, and then throw in guest appearances that include hurdy gurdy, cello and cimbalom just for starters. The result is a melding of sounds and directions that is satisfying to both the devotee of Pentangle folk music and Ornette Coleman’s freedom.
Picked strings, a B3 organ and various ethnic percussion things and watcha-ma-callits create a nice little groove on”Auto Rickshaw,” for example, whereas some Asian reeds team up for a bluesy “First Gnossienne.” You might feel tempted to join in a folk styled circled circle dance on the klezmerish “Dance of the Terrible Bear” or the more Mediterranean “The Road to Koprivnica.” A wonderful flow of the reeds is gently driven by cymbals and reeds on “Gordana’s Dream” and some excellent clarinet and mandolin embrace on ”Night Train to the Ukraine.” Even a touch of 60s surf music turns middle eastern on”Communist Modern” and a hint of Dragnet goes Gaellic on “Corned Beef and Sake.” For something that could have turned out self important and sophomoric, this melding of sounds is more like a curry sauce that got some influences from going to various street markets. Bon Appetit!