Since bursting onto the recording scene in the late 80s with delightful solo albums like "Scenes from a Mirage" and the series of polka commissions originally issued on the Japanese Eva label, Klucevsek has become everyone's favorite avant accordionist, combining a strong melodic sense with a sometimes adventurous repertoire and an engaging persona. Little by little, however, perhaps inevitably, a certain sameness has crept into his output; the melodicism has become a bit tempered, the exploratory nature somewhat more confined. This disc, while showing glimpses of Klucevsek at his creative best, is ultimately yet another in that sequence.

The pieces contained here were written for dance and film accompaniment and are performed with a group including Steve Elson (clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano sax), Pete Donovan (bass), John Hollenbeck (drums, percussion) and Alex Meixner (accordion). His band mates, while entirely competent, might be part of the problem. Klucevsek is smooth enough on his own and can get past that via sheer musicality but it behooves him to find companions with more of an edge. Elson, for instance, doesn't bring the attractive combination of lushness and roughness that Doug Wieselman did on earlier Klucevsek ventures. And while this listener has rarely felt that drums were necessary in conjunction with the accordionist, Hollenbeck — again, more than capable — feels too rote, not too far removed from a savvy lounge drummer. Sticking someone a bit more dangerous in that role, a Han Bennink, say, might have paid great dividends.

As is, we have a baker's dozen of songs that run the usual gamut from marches to waltzes, to lullabies, here influenced by Ireland, there Madagascar, over there Slovenia. The music is almost always attractive and fine-spun, only rarely rising above that. Pieces like "Bone Dance" and "The Return of Lasse" have something of the intense, almost romantic nostalgia that Klucevsek is capable of evoking and transcend the mere prettiness of many of the others, some of which, like "Closer by Far" tread perilously close to superficial exotica. Make no mistake, they are pretty and performed with great craft, it's just that they're in danger of becoming the aural equivalent of a coffee table book, blending tastefully with their surroundings. Maybe it's time for a new commissioning of polkas by the current crop of younger, downtown NYC denizens to impart to our accordionist some of the grit that's missing here.

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