La grande Folie - San Salvador

La grande Folie - San Salvador (CD)

Occitan polyphony is the starting point for this six-voice and percussion collective as they embark on their search for universal folklore, rooted in the region’s deep troubadour traditions yet circulating between cultures and musical genres. Their compositions use the Occitan language as a rhythmic instrument, combining poetry with hypnotic vocal harmonies cascading over shifting patterns of compelling percussion.

In the performance work ‘La Grande Folie’, they question the myth of an unalterable ‘heritage’, seeking instead ‘to answer the question of the boundaries between tradition and creation. An answer to those who say that music has a beginning and an end’. It’s a joyful quest that sees them following every path from the crossroads of trance, choral punk, global vocalese and math-rock constructions; modern Occitan troubadours at large in the world.

Gabriel Durif – vocals, tambourine  ; Eva Durif – vocals  ; Thibault Chaumeil – vocals, tom bass  ; Marion Lherbeil – vocals, tom bass  ; Laure Nonique Desvergnes – vocals  ; Sylvestre Nonique Desvergnes – vocals, drums

Digipacks 3 parts + 16 pages booklet.
Pagans.

Tracks:
1.Fai Sautar 03:00
2.La Liseta 13:58
3.Lo Mes de Mai 06:03
4.La Grande Folie 11:50
5.La Fin de la Guerra 03:08
6.Enfans de la Campagna 09:05
7.San Josep 08:06
8.Quau te Mena 03:49

Extracts:





Press review:

Most of the travelling I do as editor of Songlines is to festivals around the world, and one of the things I most enjoy about them is the communal listening experience. There’s something visceral about hearing music being performed live with other people around you. For me, San Salvador perfectly encapsulate this feeling. A sextet from Saint-Salvadour in south-west France, they sing in Occitan. There’s a real physicality to their music and something incredibly powerful about the combination of voice and percussion. They always finish their sets with La Grande Folie – a song that resonates with these crazy times.
PLAYLIST by Jo Frost, 4 feb. 2021, theguardian.com