Chutney’s debut album is a klezmer ‘tasting jar’

Making an album has been on the cards ever since the Sydney-based klezmer fusion group Chutney first formed back in 2020.

Since then, the band has grown from a trio to a six-person ensemble; performed over 100 gigs; gone viral on social media; embarked on a national tour; and released a popular single worthy of attention from Rolling Stone.

Today, they finally released their debut album, aptly named Ajar, on Spotify.

“Recording an album has definitely been the most complex, biggest and expensive project I've ever run,” Chutney’s band leader and violinist Ben Adler told The Jewish Independent.

“It blew out well beyond what we imagined, mainly because we're all perfectionists. There is a permanence about recording an album, especially these days – once something's up on the internet, it’s there forever.”

While an album was always the goal, the band only took the endeavour seriously about two years ago.

After a series of grant applications were rejected, Chutney turned to its community, where a three-month crowdfunding campaign – gathering over 80 Jewish and non-Jewish donors – and a Chanukah fundraiser helped raise enough funds for recording to begin in April 2023.

“We hoped to finish recording in June, but the last sessions we did were in January the next year. It bled out to a multi-phase process that took almost 12 months,” Adler explained.

“It was a deeply creative process in the most unlimited sense. We allowed ourselves to make real whatever we had in our heads, and whatever our producer told us could be possible in the studio.”

Such creativity is clearly evident in Ajar’s diversity, which acts as a “tasting jar” of Chutney's music.

Over its 13 songs – the band are calling Ajar their “bat mitzvah” coming-of-age moment – listeners can expect an entertaining mix of originals and covers, instrumentals and vocalists, and genres including pop, disco, swing, funk and jazz, all nestled under the umbrella of Chutney’s signature klezmer fusion.

“We embrace the wide gamut of Jewish musical influences. We claim it as part of our Jewish musical heritage and tapestry,” Adler said.

“It is a bit of a smorgasbord, and we did that deliberately, because we wanted this to be a jar of Chutney. We want someone to take their spoon into this jar, and to get a bit of everything that we do. Klezmer fusion is the strongest flavour, and the flavour we’re proudest of, but there is variety.”

The inspiration behind Ajar is certainly recognisable, with tracks embracing everything from The Godfather to Star Wars and Fiddler on the Roof. With the backing of a professional recording studio, some tracks comprise 100 to 200 layers of instruments, making the music richer than when Chutney performs live.

Fans of the band will already know their cover of Kama At Yafa, which debuted to over 350,000 Instagram views after it was released early in support of Israel in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack.

Others may be more familiar with Toxic Moonlight, a mashup of Britney Spears’ Toxic and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, which was named a “song you need to know” by Rolling Stone Australia – a title that left the band “completely delighted”.

Adler says the order of the album “took weeks to decide” and that “it’s worth the investment” to listen to in one sitting.

“We really wanted to take the audience on a journey, which meant two things: creating variety and creating an appropriate trajectory. Deciding what would go in the album and the order we’d put them in was complex. We didn’t leave a single stone unturned in our decision-making.”

The full release of Ajar today comes following a series of singles, the launch of the physical album in March, and a successful tour. It feeds into a revival of klezmer music across the country, with the launch of the Melbourne Klezmer School last month, and a klezmer ensemble on offer at the Emanuel School in Sydney.

“There’s a groundswell coming from youth that we’ve seen. There’s also a general interest in Jewish music, a strengthening and ignition in the Jewish cultural experience since October 7,” Adler said.

But it’s also a time when many Australian Jewish creatives have become targets for confronting antisemitism, from doxing, abuse and boycotting concerts, to losing work and long-held relationships within the music industry.

“I don't believe there are many other groups in Australia that have that same lived reality where they can be rejected, and then go home at night wondering if it is because of their music or because of their identity and heritage.”

As a publicly Zionist band, Chutney has had similar experiences, but Adler says it’s not the full story.

He recalls playing for a crowded pub in regional Victoria in April this year, and teaching the “entirely non-Jewish audience” how to dance the Hora. “It was incredibly heartening,” he said.

“We've found a bigger than expected appetite among the public to engage with Jewish, and even specifically Israeli, music,” Adler concluded.

“I think the average Joe and Josephine… just want to get on with their life and live as Australians, which includes enjoying good music, and if the music's good, they’ll enjoy it. We play often for the Jewish community, but when we don’t, it doesn't seem to make a difference at all.

“We don’t dwell on what may have been because it’s not productive. We just continue to create as much positive momentum as we can."