"World music" is often a misleading tag. When the phrase is used to describe and promote a particular album, you almost have to brace yourself for product that is merely world music inspired. Pure music of any culture seldom trickles down to the masses via regular channels without being corrupted or "improved" by the modern, media-fed ear, so when I first popped in this trio's debut, I had assumptions: this will be either an arty, experimental, electro-acoustic blend or some sort of danceable, electronica fusion.

Boy, was I wrong. Sukke is a European collective made up of clarinetist Merlin Shepherd (of Great Britain), accordion player Sanne Moricke (of the Netherlands) and vocalist/bassist/guitarist Heiko Lehmann (of Germany). These three play klezmer -- not a form of it, or an adulterated twist. They play it straight. This may come as a bit of a shock; most of us haven't been exposed to this traditional Jewish music -- aside, of course, from those who are Jewish or who attended a friend's bar/bat mitzvah back in the day. ("Hava Nagila", anyone?)

A sukke, in simplest terms, is a hut where Jews spend one week a year living simply and remembering their origins. Hence, Sukke is an apt name for the trio, who keep klezmer, a rich, multi-faceted music rooted in Yiddish traditions, stubbornly alive. (Interestingly, Sukke is the first European klezmer band ever.) To untrained ears like mine, its bouncing, accordion-fueled cadence and blithely played solos will remind you of polka. If you're looking for a beat, you'll have to settle for the intrinsic rhythms within -- remarkably compelling once you tune in. The material here is played on a virtuoso level: each musician is a celebrated figure within the klezmer scene (that's right, there's a klezmer scene), and each cut, whether straight-up traditional or not, utterly faithful to the genre's unspoken strictures. Fittingly, given klezmer's dependence upon the clarinet as its primary "voice", Shepherd is the standout player: his clarinet flitters hummingbird-like over Moricke and Lehmann's steady backing, offering beguiling, wide-ranging melodies that hit every possible note in the spectrum. Occasionally, as on "Santa King", Lehmann joins in with some jaunty vocals -- all in Yiddish, of course. For uninitiated listeners who are "brave" enough to look beyond the pop and indie realms, Sukke delivers a fascinating document of pure klezmer music -- a sonic world unto itself.