Sydsvenska Dagbladet 29-09-2010 (Swedish newspaper)

Score: 5/5

There are some all Swedish names on the cover. No wonder. These are melodies steaming of the Balkans, Tango feeling, musette waltzes, and gypsy violin traditions from the East. And they are played with that incredible mixture of total passion and stringent abstemiousness and control; a style otherwise only mastered by eastern Europeans, Argentinians and Flamenco Spaniards.

Accordionist/pianist Camilla Åström has written most of the melody drenched numbers, where the Gothenburg trio Kaja use blue notes of a kind B B King has never found and which stings better than schampoo in your eyes. If one wants to know how much a single violin (played by Livet Nord) can express, just go straight to the track "Lullaby for Mira and Idun". Is it groovy? It´s groovy.

Best track: Lullaby for Mira and Idun

/Alexander Agrell

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NWT, 17-09-2010 (Swedish newspaper)

Score: 5/5

Kaja- life on a bottle

This trio start off in the soil of Eastern European folk music and let their originally composed arrangements stretch upwards on a winding journey. The music of Kaja is pensive, empathic and rich.

It sounds like Kaja have taken everything in life, distilled it on a bottle and shaken it. To gently uncork it is like diving straight into the instrumental soundscape of Kaja. Here, French accordion waltzes share space with fiery Klezmer, stealthy back beat with cinematic melancholy, and a languorous interplay in three musical chapters. Sometimes it is hot and out of breath, sometimes it is tranquil and sliding. A good soundtrack for the upcoming autumn, where it is a place for both rush and rest.

/Lovisa Eriksson

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Corren, 08-09-2010 (Swedish newspaper)

Score: 5/5

Trio Kaja play cross-fertilized Folk Music in a nonprejudiced atmosphere of salty darkness and melancholic seriousness. But they also sweeten the ears with brisk attacks of young fresh oxygen into the old traditions.

Original compositions in three musical chapters that throb with influences, from a foundation of spirited Klezmer to a surface of fresh French waltz, talented Tango and strict Swedish Folk traditions.

Livet Nord's violin creates breathtaking melodies with a raw elegance. The pulsating accordion in the arms of Camilla Åström is a magnificent and rejoicing power station. Daniel Wejdin's vigorous double bass is a reinforcement bar of steady rhythm. Rust contains exceptional music with dear harmonies, enamoured rhythms and bold arrangements.

/Lars Åbom

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Lira #4 (09-2010)

LIRA LIKES

THE MANY LAYERS OF TRADITION. Listening to Kaja´s second instrumental album is like constantly being transferred between geographic areas, genres, and layers of cultural impulses. They treat their listeners to their newly composed music, which has a foundation of a classic musical expression, primarily through the violin and viola of Livet Nord, but which is pervaded by Eastern European folksiness and Klezmer, Latin Tango moves, French swirls and Swedish old-time pace.

Kaja have arranged their limitless music in a most ingenious way, where rich and sublime expressions find each other in a constantly varying and groovy rhythmic.

Camilla Åström, who has composed most of the tracks, handles her accordion as if all emotional expressions in the world were in her hands. The double bass of Daniel Wejdin is sensitively holding the trio's earthy interplay within a solid form. Through the group sweeps musical winds and influences from many directions, which gather in a surprisingly powerful repertoire. Kaja´s views and wide horizon give them material to find new expressions in their music. There is a thrill and magic that make every track grow into a kind of world of opportunities, which they really use in their daring composing.

/Gunder Wåhlberg

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Östran, 30-09-2010

Kaja find new paths

Kaja is a Gothenburg trio that creates ebullient and vital music that sounds like nothing else.

With a starting point in various musical expressions from different directions, they mix their own particularly attractive stew. Music with an improvisational glimmer and at the same time, in it's evident elegance so overwhelmingly skilled and virtuosic, it sounds like it should have been very strictly arranged in the compositions already.

There are three high class musicians who combine high level of playing skills with an equally high level of improvisational feeling and ability. Livet Nord, violin, Daniel Wejdin, double bass and Camilla Åström, accordion and piano. Three musicians with a striking breadth and versatility in their play.

Bustling Klezmer, Tango, Eastern European folk sound, a bit of Swedish folk music, and a lot more is the foundation for the vital, captivating cheerful and sparkling music. Which contains some Contemporary music but flavoured with a great deal of wilfulness. With their few instruments, Kaja create a rich sound. Nice harmonies and rhythmical. With constant exciting digressions and changes. They change style within tracks in an impressively natural and smooth way. With impressive flexibility through daring adventurous arrangements, and strong dynamics in both interplay and change of musical style and atmosphere.

Kaja experiment and create a music that finds new paths for how to handle multifarious styles. And it is absolutely fabolously good.

/Tommy Granlund


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