Review from the professional journal' De klarinet ' no 35 – November/December 2004:

Slightly Different, a musical journey
Kris Vuylsteke
Da Capo 7450

After a long day and an exhausting traffic jam, you come home and you find an envelope on your doormat with this message: ‘Music is and always will be fun ! Pass it on ! For your listening pleasure.' By Kris Vuylsteke . Such an enthusiastic message really makes your day and arouses your interest for the cd in the envelope. ‘Slightly Different' is the name of Belgian clarinet player Kris Vuylsteke 's disc and his - philosophical – motto is: ‘I have learned something from everybody, …. but from everybody something ‘slightly different'. Kris Clarinet – as he calls himself – has tried to capture exactly this something ‘slightly different' in music. That makes, as you can well imagine, for a kaleidoscopic repertoire.

Free of any concern, this Belgian combines music by Charles Camilleri , Patrick Hiketick , Marc Matthys and Jan van der Roost with old musical acquaintances such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Serge Prokofiev and Artie Shaw. All of this performed by – besides the clarinet – five strings with ( sometimes ) piano and drums.

Especially the first tracks on the cd – Anita's Dances by Hiketick and Four Greek Songs by Charles Camilleri – lend mostly a folk music ambiance, often dansant sometimes melancholic as in the stilled Andante Piacevole by Cammilleri , to Kris's clarinet's musical journey. The atmosphere of all tracks is melodious and flowing .

Of ‘good old' Amadeus we hear the Larghetto from the Clarinet Quintet KV 581. Quite a transition from Camilleri and somewhat out of place as the rest of the quintet is missing, Kris, however, plays it with much dedication. The same objection is true for the Ouverture on Hebrew Themes: there are already a lot of (very) good recordings, and this one doesn't really add anything new.

Different though for Artie Shaw's Concerto , which I find one of the nicest tracks on the cd . True, there are also a lot of recordings of Shaw's jazzconcerto , but Kris & Co have quite gone their own way with this one. They perform the Concerto with a chamber music cast with a string quartet, contrabass, piano and drums. Arranger Steve Willaert has ‘updated' – if you will - some rhythms with funk and boogie-woogie grooves. On top of that, Kris Clarinet plays some irresistable glissando notes, that slide naughtily over your back and make the hair stand on end and – well – that would cheer up even the the worst ‘sourpuss' among critics … and therefore certainly yours truly.

After this cheerful, really ‘slightly different' adventure, there's the short, contemplative Traumerei by Marc Matthys for clarinet with strings and a wonderful arrangement with strings and piano of Jan van der Roost ‘s brass band Rikudim .

Indeed Kris: even in this age of ‘9 /11 & hightech ', music is precious and fun and the ‘pure' intention is in the end as important as the pursuit of a technically perfect performance. Pass it on… with your clarinet !

Maarten Mestrom