After the first minute of the first song, I almost picked up this album and threw it out the window. The first song is a version of Kurt Weill's "Speak Low" and it sounded like jazz fusion. Jazz fusion and Kurt Weill combined, I believe, is a sign of the apocalypse. Yet this album is doesn't stay with this sound, and I dare say defies categorization. The vocals of Josefine Cronholm adds a lot of warmth to jazz styles that range from the avant-garde to having influences of fusion. If you want to really ascribe a description to this, imagine French circus music as sung by Holly Cole. Some of the stand-out tracks include Duke Ellington's "Solitude", "Hi Lili Hi Lo" and "Over the Rainbow".

By Jason May
Jan 1, 1999