Daniel Colin - Chansons Damour de Paris - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Already brought together on record by Franck Bergerot and Patrick Tandin in the days of Paris Musette, Daniel Colin (accordion, bandonuon) and Raul Barboza (accordion) have become vibrant legends on their instruments. The scope of this project and their frequent tours in Japan made them genuine ambassadors for a popular, alternative kind of French music. Produced by Dominique Cravic, founder of the Primitifs du Futur, Rencontre Paris is a cultural melting-pot where musette meets swing, tango and Amerindian music. It's a snapshot of a generous, popular culture that finds authenticity in roaming over the cobblestones of Montmartre or the Butte aux Cailles, and it succeeds in crossing oceans and time.

The pianist Daniel Isoir is the son of one of the greatest French organists, who died in 2016, André Isoir. Like all children of musicians, he was bathed in music from birth, was impregnated with the organ repertory and notably with the works of César Franck, whose complete works his father recorded in 1975 on a Cavaillé-Coll. As a homage to his father, Daniel Isoir in turn plunges into these scores written originally for the piano, or being the result of celebrated transcriptions from the organ to the piano. A virtuoso pianist, Franck gave up quite early his first instrument, becoming the famous organist, titular of Sainte Clotilde, who for 38 years no longer composed for the piano while leaving an indelible imprint on the organ repertory. It was thus not until 1884 and 1887, having acquired a solid reputation as a composer, that he wrote his two great triptychs that belong to the great patrimony of the French piano. The third triptych was written down a bit later conjointly for large organ and for piano/harmonium duet. The celebrated 3ème Choral completes this programme, along with the bewitching Danse lente as the cherry on the cake. In order to record this music with it's contained lyricism, it's fluid, subtle harmonies, illuminated by memories as fleeting as they are dazzling of high virtuosity, Daniel Isoir has chosen an Erard piano of 1875, setting it off with magnificent luminosity and sumptuous colors.

With Perchta's second full-length entitled InchD'MuataInch, which translates from her Alpine Austrian dialect to English as InchThe MotherInch, mastermind and vocalist Frau Percht and her band have created a feminist manifesto within a folklore influenced black metal context. Femininity in all it's facets is a rather niche topic in this genre although it is an inseparable part of everything human and the natural world around us. Taking their name from an alleged pagan goddess, Perchta were conceived in Austria in 2017 with an aim to preserve and rejuvenate regional traditions. Three years later, Perchta released their debut album InchUfangInch, which established the band's reputation as a highly individualistic and unique act. All lyrics of the entire album are intoned in the Tyrolean vernacular. The words are shrouded in a tempest of tremolo guitars and ritualistic folk with bone-piercing extreme vocals on top. Now the black witch of the Tyrolean mountains and her pack return with a magical new album.