Speak Low: Loewe and Weill in Exile

Personnel: Masha Qrella (vocals, guitar); Rike Schuberty, Rike Schuberty (vocals, guitar); Michael Muhlhaus (vocals, organ, bass instrument); Andi Haberl (drums).
Recording information: Clouds Hill Recordings, Hamburg, Germany (08/11/2008-08/14/2008).
The affable, low-key indie-pop of Masha Qrella probably isn't the obvious choice in providing interpretations of classic Broadway songs by composers Kurt Weill and Frederick Loewe. But the former Contriva front woman does her best to put a homey lo-fi pop spin on songs usually associated with musical theatre on SPEAK LOW: LOEWE & WEILL IN EXILE, an album commissioned by Berlin's House of World Cultures to commemorate their 50th anniversary. While the stripped-back and largely unadorned arrangements here are worlds away from the giddy theatricality of Weill's and Loewe's compositions, Qrella imbues classics such as "Speak Low" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" with convincing authority, conveying their timeless message through simple melodic voicings led by her understated yet powerful pipes.