Diamos Roll

Not surprisingly, some of the language used to praise US styles within Slavic music borrows from American slang. Talk of anything "cosmically" impressive, however, goes way beyond cliche. A wide range of related imagery opens up.

Some recent instrumental recordings have invested much energy in a certain form of modesty. By toying with irony and even anonymity, four introspective performers magnify the object of their attention.

The sounds on display here stretch all the way from Minsk to the Chinese border. Not surprisingly, themes of distance appear from time to time. The search continues for a balance between noisy cities and crippling isolation.