Tèrra de Sistre - Calèu

Tèrra de Sistre - Calèu

The name of the band comes from the old designation of an oil lamp, used in the past for everyday life in the house...
The symbol here is the fragile small flame, not easy to switch off, bringing to light the revival of occitan culture...

The Occitan language, still used today by a lot of people of southern France comes from the latin language. After the fall of the roman empire 2000 years ago, the latin language evolved to become French, Italian, Spanish, Corsican... etc.
Occitan is one of the regional languages still alive in southern France, spoken by thousands of people, the occitan language is not accepted officially inside of the french republic.
The centralist ideas after the french revolution in 1789 have imposed French as the only language permitted by the french constitution. Today, Occitan language is well-known as the language of "troubadours" (inventors of poetry during the european middle-age) and carries on a great cultural heritage coming from past centuries, and it is respected as a language of tolerance and love...


Céline and Hervé have met together around the practical of traditionnal fiddle (occitan folk music and dances) when they have decided to start the Calèu duet, their challenge was to incite the people to give themselves a moment of peace and calm to share some good music specially written to dress nice occitan poems...

The themes of this répertoire are talking about human feelings, love of nature, attachment to the ground of their nice country...

Basically, Céline learned the bases of classical guitar and after became a songwriter, and Hervé has performed many years in a male voices polyphonic quartet, specialized in occitan traditionnal songs from the Cévennes...
They use to share the writing of original musics for these songs of Calèu band...

In a live concert, all the songs are explained  with a simple style, creating immediately a real proximity and a soft connivance between the audience and the artists ! A concert of Calèu is really a sweet moment of fun, a good medecine for the soul...

Duo Calèu has produced "Tèrra de Sistre" in 2012 (land of shale, title of a poem from Joan Guers).

Album 13 titles with libretto Occitan-French.

The band:

Céline Klisinski: vocals, guitar
Hervé Robert: vocals, guitar, violin