This album’s a sheer delight, but then I tend to like anything that comes from the Quebec musical tradition. This is a group with violin, mandolin, guitar, vocals — and Uillean pipes. Yes, Uillean pipes! Brigid, me dear wife, says this reminds her strongly of Moving Hearts, the near legendary Irish super group that lasted but a few short years in the 80s. No doubt, it’s the pipes, but it does suggest something ’bout the bleeding together of the various Celtic traditions over the past thirty or so years.
Now if you’re one of those “pure drop” trad music, you won’t be happy with Y’Vait du monde, so go away from here down to your pub where everyone in the sessuin plays for nothing but a pint or two of your favourite stout. One minute while he leaves … Ah, now the rest of you are in for a gobsmackin’ good time! The group says it “borrows its name from Celtic mythology and most among you will have recognized there, a name different from goblins, these facetious, untamable and curious sprites, evolving/moving in the meanders of time and our poor human stories, the alert spirit and the body as much.” (Pardon the fractured French — me grasp of it is very much of the langage de carrefour variety.)
The band has five members: Bernard Simard (Guitar, Voice, Feet), Loic Blejean (Uillean pipes), Sylvain Barou (Flutes, Low Whistles), Dina Rakatomanga (Double Bass) and Domenica Trichet (Violin). What you get on Y’Vait du monde is the usual fine mix of tunes such as “Mutt’s Favourite/Flapper’s Reel” by those great Qubecperformers Jerry Holland and Iain MacLeod. Ok, so Gwazigan uses material from outside their tradition which why Brigid correctly noted that Gwazigan sounds a lot like Moving Hearts, especially on the tunes. But they do sound more grounded on songs like “Cavale” with a sound akin to that you’d hear in a small bistro somewhere in Quebec. Yes, Quebec: what’s going on is that Benard Simard who wrote “Cavale” is from that musically rich culture. Therefore Y’Vait du monde is an exercise in cultural fusing that — unlike most such attempts — works very fine, thank you. This is not the “pure drop” of traditional Quebec music, but it’s quite fine. All of the fine CDs from Coop Breizh are available from the British version of Amazon which can be found here.
(Coop Breizh, 2000)
