Perlinpinpin folc ::: Al biule

Folk roots #40 • Oct. 1986 Apologies in advance to experts on musical and linguistic peculiarities of the French provinces. This seems to be songs and tunes (ancient and modern) from Southwest France, the liner giving the Iyrics in both French and something(s) else. The tentative plural is because there seem to be various kinds of not-French used: the sleeve refers to "la langue Occitane", one song is avowedly in Gascon and in print some look like Franco-Spanish hybrids (reasonable given their geographical origins). The group's a five-piece, acoustic save for bass guitar, and employing a Blowzabellan mix of instruments. Like many French bands they can sound quite orìental/exotic at times and, were it not for the heavily-fortified language barrier, somewhat embarrassing. The modern lyrics are a bit in the 1970s sensitive singer-songwriter vein, but without the bilingual sleeve and a dictionary this isn’t much of a worry
The title track To the poplar is by one Christian Rapin. who is in the habit of conversing with trees: "They spoke to me. I understood" he confides on the sleeve. Anais is (I think) about the effect of a woman's perfume on the narrator. Translation is evidently a problem as the French lyric has two more verses than the original, one of which commences "She climbs into my nostrils". The music is in best French (semi-)electric folk style with sinuous bass and percussion underlying accordion and buzzing reeds. Entre duos cadièras is about a rural bourgeois – isn’t that self-contradicting? - who has "conserved the mother tongue", unlike most of his counterparts. The song is blessed with a gently compulsive rhythm and some restrained piping, near Northumbrian in tone. Banbulok dantza is a set of three trad. tunes from the southern Basque country starting with Biribilketa, a fairly raucous march over tricky percussion (quite how you could march to it is debatable) and a fandango. The last tune Arin-Arin is an accordeon piece liberally plastered with silly birdcalls and sounds like a forerunner of a Cajun tune. Ali these would be well worth nicking.
Epistòla a un poeta sounds great: clone harmonies over a neat bass line, fiddle and rattling percussion. But ... it's about how tough it is being a poet writing in the Gascon dialect, a minority problem. Next is a dramatic fiddle/birdcall/tabla (or similar) Indian-sounding intro gradually augmented with stabbing pipe interjections. In comes solo voice dramatically intoning "heat a little fat or oil in a frying pan and add two finely-chopped cloves of garlic"; the verses over, it evolves into quite a rocky tune. This is much the best singing recipe I've heard and without the translation you'd think it was about something dead serious.
Lo batalha d'Achos is the one trad. song, done in unaccompanied harmony and dealing with a conflict between two mountain villages: °to gain a firm footing they removed their clogs". Finally there's a set of two trad. Tunes from the Landes area. The first is a round that could be straight off Pyewackett's Seven To Midnight, low register clarinet over repetitive xylophone gradually joined by bass and other instruments. The succeeding bransle is another accordion and birdnoises job (see above).
Were they sung in English, I don’t think I'd give most of these tracks house room on account of the somewhat over-poetic lyrics. Thanks to minority languages though, you can enjoy this for its overall sound of fairly straightforward vocals and intricate, but not gratuitously so, instrumental arrangements. If you like the generai French sound, this is worth trying.
Nick Beale
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Alain Cadeillan: voix, cornemuse, hautbois, percussion
Patrick Cadeillan: voix, accordéon diatonique, percussion
Jean-Pierre Cazade: voix, basse, mandoloncelle, bambulek
Christian Lanau: voix, violon, percussion
Jean Luc Madier: mandole, violoncelle , percussion
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01 Anais
02 Entre duas cadièras
03 Al biule
04 Bambulak dantza
05 Epistòla a un poèta
06 Lo torin a l'ivronha
07 La batalha d'Achòs
08 Roue libre
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1985 • Auvidis AV 4520
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Al biule
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