Ghedalia Tazartes

Astonishing new record: Ante-Mortem" is one of Ghédalia Tazartès’ major works of the last 20 years. Although simply named 1 to 23, the CD bears a collection of very diverse tracks, a couple of them connected in a thematical frame, others simply standing for themselves. What holds them all together is first and all Tazartès’ archetypical voice. One could say that "Ante-Mortem" contains some of his harshest ever tracks as well as a couple of his most humorous ones.

"The album’s musical palette is astonishing, but Ante-Mortem never feels gimmicky or touristic, as we are transported from occasionally forbidding atmospheres to operatic whimsy and everything in between, always with an engagingly human dimension because of the foregrounding of that acrobatic voice. Certain motifs recede and recur to give unity to Tazartès’s maverick creativity, and the album’s 25 untitled tracks fly by." Alex Neilson, The Wire