A musical exploration of love and all its pleasures and pains is common fodder for the Cabaret Fringe. But Lisette and Her Faux Manouches promise some less expected songs portrayed in less expected ways (Roy Orbison in Spanish anyone?) and delivers a beautiful and at times tragic review of love in all its forms.

Lisette battled on through a thin audience and an ill-fitting and sterile venue with a voice that drips with experience, aided by her excellent backing band: her faux manouches, or, for the steadfastly mono-lingual, ‘fake gypsies’ . Her voice is unpretentious, she leaves all the vocal acrobatics to the amateurs on reality television shows, and what is left is pure, unguarded and evocative.

Likewise, her musicians are all skilled and understated, and they let the finely crafted songs do the talking, blending the traditional with gypsy, jazz and Cabaret. Lisette served to remind us of the beauty of Jaques Brel, Django Reinhardt, Roy Orbison, and even the James Bond theme; their songs interwoven with her far flung stories of love.

Though one might suspect Lisette’s patter between songs was slightly over-rehearsed and at times was somewhat deflated by the venue and reticent audience (her jokes worked best when off the cuff) Lisette and Her Faux Manouches was close to captivating if for nothing but the music itself – a worthy look for anybody appreciative of music with a European twist.

Kryztoff Rating – 3.5K