Olen himself, who has delighted many audiences with his stage performances with his Quintet, seems to have stepped straight out of a fairy tale, part elf, part wizard, angel, gypsy. Undoubtedly a generous violinist, he plays from the heart with a virtuosity that has no need for contrived technicalities and an often dreamlike evocativeness, at times lyric, with sudden, quasi-frenzied changes of rhythm, enthralling and highly talented. Everything about him vibrates, leaps and dances. Olen Cesari takes his rightful place in a magical musical crystal sphere from which anything can emerge. He verges on ingeniousness, he’s astounding, unclassifiable, beyond any philological connotation.

Nine traditional classics and four original tracks, all composed and arranged by Olen, take us to various countries around the world, perhaps those dearest to the musician’s heart, an intrinsic part of him which influence and enrich his music. Hungary, Italy, Albania, Turkey, Russia, the USA, Ivory Coast, Israel, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, India… a kaleidoscope of expeditions into the very heart of these nations, explorations accompanied by voices and musicians of the highest calibre.

Italy offers one of the album’s most outstanding tracks, “Anema e core”, Salvatore D’Esposito’s Neapolitan classic. Olen has transformed it into a masterpiece of rare beauty with the help of the lyrical, vibrant and animistic piano of Sergio Cammariere, one of the most compelling musicians in Italy’s music scene, and the inspired voice of an extraordinary Lucio Dalla. A touching piece where the counterpoint of the violin becomes mellow, an unusual trio of excellence that offers an original rendering of this well-known song.

The journey continues through imaginary landscapes with the splendid voice of the ambassadress of Albanian song, Elsa Lila, and we find ourselves in Olen Cesari ’s motherland, Albania.

The next track takes us to the States with a lively rippling rendering of  “Sweet Georgia Brown”, featuring an exceptional guest and his extraordinary trumpet, Fabrizio Bosso who, along with Olen on his violin, offers an exuberant Charleston that will enchant all lovers of classical jazz.

What emerges above all is Olen Cesari’s incredible versatility, an ever-changing imaginative ability to play anything with anyone passing effortlessly from the frenetic Hungarian rhythms of the opening track to the delicate poetic strains of other works on the album. An eclectic highly talented musician who, although still young and at his first CD, has twenty years of musical experience behind him, a prestigious career during which he has collaborated with international names and received many awards and  acknowledgments. Olen was born with music in his veins and an inborn capacity to improvise, but it is above all his light-heartedness and profound modesty which make each and every note freed as if by magic from his violin great, compassionate, passionate, dulcet and sincere. A soul-inspired violin, almost an extension of Olen’s very being.

M.P.G.