150 Voices

Sklamberg is best-known as the vocalist of The Klezmatics and an excellent Yiddish (and English) singer. Siberian-born Shepherd is also a singer of Yiddish and Russian. I wish I liked this more, particularly as it’s not just the duo, but something more ambitious that was clearly difficult to do. Its title comes from the fact that there are 150 voices involved with Yiddish and Russian Choirs in Brighton, Hove and London, and the A Besere Velt Yiddish Chorus in Boston. The duo tracks are by far the best part of this record, the two of them singing in both Yiddish and Russian and accompanied by piano, accordion and guitar. The song ‘Keyer Veyst es Nisht’ (No One Knows It), composed by Shepherd, is exquisite with delicate guitar accompaniment and the two voices softly harmonising, particularly on the high rising and falling refrain. It’s beautiful for its restraint. Most of the songs have a folk-like simplicity, but on 12 of the 18 pieces they are joined by the choral forces, which sound absurdly overblown or sentimental. The exception is ‘Utushka’ (Little Duck), which features Shepherd as soloist backed by the UK choirs. Otherwise the concept is misguided.