With “Lenin’s Wheelchair” it’s hard to know where the jazz begins and the chanson ends, or when it becomes folk. The quintet draws freely on different genres. There are highbrow songs (a poem by William Carlos Williams set to music) and hillbilly wit, bluesy rags, and the brilliant banter of violinist Kurt Bauer and guitarist Gerhard Neubauer – the first-rate drummer Anne Weinhardt and young bassist Leonore Hollauf complete the ensemble. And as Temmel proves in passing, the less obviously good singers are often the more interesting ones.

Yet the music’s greatest appeal lies in the fact that right up until the end it’s not clear whether we are dealing here with music that is overly engineered or – entirely to the contrary – the product of a negligent, because unreflected, infatuation with music. The band, which for starts, has a marvelous name, lives from exactly this contradiction.

In Styria Wolfgang Temmel is one of the few people who comes to my mind when I hear the words “universal artist”. He is a musician, media artist, accomplished painter and, to top it off, an exceptionally gifted storyteller. If you’re unacquainted with his CD with the Bonsai Garden Orchestra from 2008, you’ve really missed something fundamental – and his new album released under the band name “Lenin’s Wheelchair” is in no way inferior.

Enormously relaxed, vibrant, and at the same time socially critical in undertone, Domovina is an extremely energetic mix that no good collection should be without, no matter whether you prefer light entertaining music or more serious stuff. You can hear different kinds of styles and sources of inspiration, from Chuck LeMonds to Mozart, rock, classic, world music and folk – and they all work together wondrously. The mere 22-year-old Bassist Leonore Hollauf, seasoned violinist Kurt Bauer, dynamic drummer Anne Weinhardt and fantastic guitarist Gerhard Neubauer blend with Temmel’s ukulele and vocals to form a charming band you’d love to book for a late autumn garden party.