Marta Shpak. V nebi zironka. /digi-pack/. (The Star in the Sky)

This album was released specifically on the eve of a large foreign concert tour by Marta Shpak. So, it looks like a collection of the best of the previous recordings significantly expanded with a number of new songs. As well as the debut album, "At Dawn", it is a high-quality combination of variety art dance aesthetics with colors of the Ukrainian folklore. And it is not only about modernized sounding of folk songs – although there are enough of them here – we are talking about modernized styling of author material. Spot-on styling – the more so that the manner of Marta Shpak's performance leaves no doubt as to her Ukrainian origin (just consider the a capella tracks). But in the arrangements, along with purely Ukrainian colors one can hear, for example, Oriental motifs – and this, certainly, adds interesting overtones to the overall sounding of the collection. Actually, this kind of balancing on the edge of the popular genre, when it seems that one more step would make it something completely different, more intimate – successfully stirs curiosity all through the time while the disc plays. And – it leaves the hope that the next piece by Marta Spak will be just that ... somewhat more intimate, perhaps.