Kallisto’s new album is a musical portrait of Montréal through a distorted klezmer lens, blending progressive rock, Anatolian folk music, surf rock, funk, trip hop, psychedelic rock, and Jewish musical traditions into sprawling instrumental narratives inspired by the city’s neighbourhoods, contradictions, and movement.

From the heavy polyrhythms and ritualistic cello doina of Evil Eye, inspired by the Jewish concept of the “ayin hara,” to the restless 11/8 transformations of Chameleon, the album explores Montréal as a constantly shifting organism shaped by construction, migration, nightlife, winter, and cultural hybridity.

Pieces like Khosidl channel the Jewish atmosphere of Mile End through funk and trip hop grooves, while Yalla captures the frantic energy and grit of downtown métro life. CDN (Côte-des-Neiges) reflects the layered communities and youthful spirit of one of Montréal’s most diverse neighbourhoods through surf rock and hip-hop influences, and the album closes with Ice Age Princess, a cinematic three-part suite portraying Montréal as a beautiful, harsh, unpredictable winter figure.

Throughout the album, Kallisto treats klezmer not as a museum tradition, but as a living musical language capable of colliding with distortion pedals, psychedelic textures, dance rhythms, and urban storytelling.