*** Muzsikás and Márta Sébestyén

MORNING STAR

(Rykodisc)

Márta Sébestyén is best known for her rendition of the traditional "Szerelem, Szerelem" on the English Patient soundtrack. Yet she's been singing since she was a child, and she began performing with the Hungarian folk group Muzsikás in the early '80s. Sébestyén, who sings in Hungarian on Morning Star, has an occasionally nasal voice that accentuates the feelings of disappointment and abandonment found in so many of the traditional folk songs she covers. Unrequited love, a painful romantic break-up, and the agony of watching young soldiers leave for war are all within her range.

Complementing her voice, fiddlers Mihály Sipos and László Porteleki are apt to start with slow, solemn melodies before building into high-pitched, swirling harmonies that take on a dramatic flair when the low humming of Dániel Hamar's bass and Péter Éri's viola is added. Theirs is a musical tradition foreign to English-speaking audiences, but it's music that bridges national boundaries -- after all, Sébestyén has became "the voice of the English Patient" without even singing in English.

-- Jeff Niesel