"The front-woman of Csókolom is the lanky, flamboyant violinist and raspy-voiced Anti von Klewitz. She is a classically- and jazz-trained musician who grew up on Bach, but started fiddling folk when, as she puts it, "I found you can actually get paid for playing the violin and you could have much more fun than just playing Mozart -- all while being free, that was deep and exciting".
The Balkanized von Klewitz is a wild fiddler, unencumbered and expressive, who leads Csókolom into a frantic, rhythmic, declamatory fury, closely related to Eastern European Gypsy music. Americans might hear similarities to Klezmer fiddling, which also holds close kinship to Gypsy violin music. Von Klewitz and Csókolom deliver infectious, danceable, paprika-spiced sounds that are madly emotive. Whether it's a steamy, foot-stomping dance tune or a mournful, moaning lament, it always carries an essential mix of "angry sadness" that von Klewitz says is an integral part of Gypsy music the world over. Yet, if comparisons have to be made for the sake of explanation, Csókolom sounds closer to ensembles like the Kronos Quartet than to typical contemporary Gypsy fiddlers such as the Romanian Florin Nicolescu. Compared to the smooth perfection of the real Gypsy violinists, who are often given to tear-jerking sweetness, melancholy expressiveness and dazzling displays of speed and technique, von Klewitz and Csókolom can sound edgy and nervous, occasionally even discordant. That's not to say they are without finesse - quite the contrary - but Csókolom tends toward forceful deliverance, with bold expressiveness, rather then exquisite ornamentation. There is the underlying feeling in the music that there never can be a natural calm ease, but rather a raging, whirling tide.... a sense of physicality, a constant storm. Von Klewitz' throaty singing ads a roughhewn edge to an already weathered sound."
Excerpt from an article by Frank Matheis in "Sing Out":
...it was Csokolom that knocked my socks off. They were an incredible, unlikely, disparate bunch of folks, absolute masters of their instruments and quite enchanting with their vitality, exuberance and sense of fun.
Monaro Musings, Blue Mountains Festival