Electric Rose / The Rose Cohen Experience
Electric Rose / The Rose Cohen Experience, 2025
CD or digital download available from Bandcamp.
This is a fascinating recording. Ilya Shneyveys has been the "go-to" accordion-player and multi-instrumentalist for music projects ranging from Alpine Klezmer to Forshpil. This is my favorite yet. It involves the legacy of Rose Cohen, born in 1897, near Kyiv, descended from a line of rabbi-cantors who emigrated to Toronto, Canada, as a young woman. As was the case with Bronya Sakina on the West Coast, she brought with her a rich Yiddish song repertoire. In Cohen's case, this also included Hebrew liturgical material and Ukrainian folk songs, all of which are represented here (including Rose Cohen's voice from the interview, as well as singing). Cohen was interviewed by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in Toronto in 1968. The interview recordings wound up at YIVO where Shneyveys and Myerson discovered them through a 2022 research/concert commission. That's where the magic starts
The musicians have interleaved fragments of the interviews with their own recordings of Cohen's repertoire and weave an electronica/folky tapestry that provides a rare context to the songs and their time, putting our ears right there. Cohen switches between English and Yiddish. Myerson's voice is electric (frequently accompanied by multiple tracks and electronica effects, sampled early recordings, beats). The combination is easy to listen to casually, and really, really rewards close listening, as Cohen's voice introduces the songs, and then returns at opportune moments, merging with the electronica and song. The music is also fun to dance to. In "Vinter in di shenyen" a folk song is turned into art song. In "Bay mashin" (at the machine), as the electronic effects set the stage, we next hear Cohen talk (about the machine? the song?) for a few seconds, before Myerson begins to sing.
I love the attention paid to life-cycle (Kale tkhine) songs, year-cycle songs ("Peysekh of der nakht," the bombastic "Berosh hashone") along with the more traditional, less-well-known folk songs. Sometimes the sound effects are what might be expected—the wind and cycling synthesizer sound on "Mayim rabim" (mighty waters) that amplify the liturgical prayer, or the call/response between bass bassoon and voice on "Eyda yokha." The thought that seems to have gone into matching effects with tone and words is part of what makes this environment so special. The melding of this one phrase with fragments of Cohen's voice and the electronica is a danceable meditation on a time now passed, one that continues with "Idy, donyu" (Go, daughter). Then the album closes with "Viglid," including fragments of voice, of "Rozinkhes mit mandln," a child's glockenspiel, the electronic effects, and Myerson's voice. Suddenly, there is silence. The only remedy is to listen, rapt, again.
Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 1-Jul-2026.
Personnel this recording:
Ilya Shneyveys: baglamadaki, fretless and keyboard bass, drums, flutes, fretless and fretted guitars, keyboards, manjo, ney, organ, percussion, poyk, sewing machine, sampler, shofar, ukulele, voice
Sarah Myerson: bass clarinet, flutes, glasses, music box, percussion, poyk, sewing machine, shofar, ukulele, vocoder, voice
Featuring:
Dinah Slepovitch: voice (track 8)
Jordan Hirsch: voice (track 9)
Songs
- Ikh heyb mikh on tsu dermonen—I begin to remember 5:43
- Bay mashin—At the machine 5:22
- Kale tkhine—Bride’s prayer 4:05
- Mayim rabim—Mighty waters 5:26
- Eyda yokha 4:37
- Vinter in di shneyen—Winter in the snow 6:20
- Idy, donyu—Go, daughter 6:37
- Peysekh of der nakht—Passover at night 5:20
- Berosh hashone—On Rosh Hashonah 7:14
- Vigele—Cradle 5:00
All songs are traditional, from the repertoire of Rose Cohen (except Track 3 "Kale tkhine:" music by Sarah Myerson). Original Rose Cohen interviews by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in Toronto 1968 (used with permission from YIVO).
