***1/2 IVA BITTOVÁ

(Nonesuch)

The scatting-in-tongues and remarkable range of vocal expression on Iva Bittová's first US release will lead some to mark her a Czech Diamanda Galás. But where chaos is often Galás's lifeblood, Bittová's musical passions unfurl with a sharp sense of order, not to mention a gentler employment of melody. A violinist and singer of uncommon talent, Bittová is a child of classical form, folk tradition (Gypsy songs of her Moravian heritage), and the avant-garde (collaborations with adventurers John Zorn and Fred Frith). The tensions among these seemingly conflicting alignments, the push-pull of joy and pain, allow her songs to follow imaginative zigzags of rhythm and mood. She moves from quaint village refrains to urban-edged jolts, the lilting to the shattered, with remarkable ease.

The combination of Bittová's soprano and her rhythmic stroking of violin and viola give this starkly recorded solo disc a dramatic presence. The violin's hypnotic Middle Eastern drones on "Ne Nehledej" ("Stop Searching"), for instance, are drawn through layers of darkness by softly yearning cries, murmurs, and staccato inventions. Although Iva Bittová is a collection of eight tracks taken from two European recordings released in 1991 and 1994, it sounds like days of future already passed.

-- Tristram Lozaw