Muse Chronicle

Claudia Balla, a singer-songwriter from Switzerland, has established herself as a major player in the region’s music scene. In this case, she had “Winter Tale” to share with us.

“Winter Tale is full of sensitivity, complexity, and made with painstaking care,”

“Gyönyörszép,” the album’s opener, features a classical choir proclaiming good tidings and urging listeners to follow the most radiant star in the sky. If we hesitate, the choir will remind us of the wonder and excitement that lie ahead. Songs like “Drive” convey a need to flee from emotional responsibilities; they are almost therapeutic in their ability to expose the tender spots in our psyches that we may not have known were there before. From “Téli éjszaka” to “Reménytelenül,” the album’s complex tracks offer eternal writings with solid builds in traditional music, each showing its distinctive flow and effect on the way we think, and all of them sounding at home on this album just as they do on ancient, stunning classical music repertoire. The album is packed to the brim with examples of harmonic mastery, with melodies and harmonies that blend into one another and ideas that develop into feelings.

A masterpiece in every sense of the word, “Winter Tale” left me feeling a wide range of emotions and is likely to be a staple in my music collection for quite some time. Easy, easy two thumbs up. Discover inspiration in this tune. Catch the muse down here.