Description
This is an outstanding collection taking the listener from Paris in the 1880s-1890s to Berlin 1900 to 1930s and back to Paris in the 1950s.
The album is all the more enjoyable for its simplicity – Robyn sings and plays the occasional ukelele, Michael Morley is on piano and vocals and George Butrumlis on accordions and vocals.
CD Review by Graham Blackley
The award winning and much loved singer, Robyn Archer, who possesses a multitude of strings to her glittering bow, has been a dynamic and integral part of the international cabaret scene for many years.
On this entertaining collection, which is comprised of a gaggle of intriguing rarities, Archer is joined by Michael Morley (piano and vocals) and George Butrumlis (accordion, orchestral bass accordion and vocals).
The album is divided neatly into three sections: “Paris 1880s-1890s”, “Berlin 1900s-1930s” and “Paris 1950s”.
One of the most enriching aspects of this album, is the arresting and unexpected insights that some of the songs provide into Paris during the 1880s and 1890s.
Such insights may compel the casual listener to view the city’s history, free of the misty eyed idealistic glow, that thoughts of Paris can typically conjure.
For example, “Here Comes the Cholera” fuses a jaunty melody with black humour and provides a rather eye opening glimpse into the impacts of a rampant and flourishing disease during the late Nineteenth Century.
On “Classic Cabaret Rarities” Archer both entertains and educates.
