Search - Jakko M. Jakszyk :: The Road To Ballina

A Unique & Moving Musical Memoir

Robert Carlberg | Seattle | 02/05/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 in December 1995, this CD tells the story of Jakko Jakszyk's search for his birth parents, and what he found.Adopted at 18 months, raised in England by a French mother and Polish father, Jakszyk found himself searching for his roots at age 24. His adoptive parents were both touched by tragedy in WWII, and their stories, told in imaginatively edited interviews and the accompanying booklet, are heartbreaking. Jakko's search eventually leads him to his Irish birth mother (living in Arkansas), and HER story is similarly stirring.The spoken word excerpts are combined with sound effects and soundscapes recorded on-site in Poland, Ireland, Germany, France and England. These are then fitted into a musical score of synthesizers, guitar, flute (all by Jakko), plus bass, cello and trumpet and saxophones by guest musicians. The musical themes interweave with the narration, sometimes picking up the rhythms of the speech (similar to what American composer Scott Johnson has done) and the rest of the time providing a simple but haunting framework. The spoken material is treated like any other element of the composition, with judicious looping, repeating themes, and a documentarian's sense of pace. Jakko himself ties together the stories with a few carefully-chosen memories of growing up.The result is a movie-for-your-ears, deep and powerful; and to my knowledge something completely unique in the world of music."