Tant Deman

I don't own the album yet (just one-clicked it after listening to the clips). The NYT review below caught my eye this morning, so I youtube'd em and OMG these guys are wonderful. You owe it to yourself to check 'em out if you like stuff that is both original/traditional, LOL. Their sound would have any group on its feet in short order, which is why I think somebody like Obama could use them to perfection!From the New York TimesBy JON PARELESPublished: January 15, 2008"The most striking group at Globalfest 2008 -- the five-hour, 12-band showcase of world music on Sunday night at Webster Hall -- was the one that traveled lightest: Lo Còr de la Plana, from Marseilles, France. It was six male singers, four of whom also played hand drums and tambourine. They sang in a disappearing language, Occitan, and in an old style that once was church music. They performed traditional and traditionalist songs that took pride in what the group's lead singer, Manu Theron, cheerfully called "filthy Marseilles.""And with just those voices and percussion, they did remarkable things. They sang rich chordal harmonies and joyfully ricocheting counterpoint. There were drones and dissonances akin to Eastern European music, sustained solo vocal lines related to Arabic music and Gregorian chant, and percussive call-and-response hinting at Africa -- all the connections of a Mediterranean hub. The music was equally robust and intricate, a local sound ready for export."

the best vocal music ever!!

I just saw Lo Cor de la Plana perform at a turn of the century church revamped as civic gathering place. What a perfect setting for voices borne on angels' wings and attitudes served up from a locale diametrically opposed!! Engaging musicians, a spokesman/artistic director who had the audience rolling in the aisles (sorry, couldn't resist another church allusion), soaring harmonies wrapped around sharp, precise polyrhythmic riffs in the ancient language of Occitan, infused with the edgy melting pot heat of Marseilles. Confused? It's a heady brew, and in a world of cookie-cutter "American Idol" pop-star gruel, Lo Cor de la Plana is undeniably one-of-a-kind. They may take some getting used to, but check them out on You Tube (tour du bourreau pau) and allow the time to soak it all in.

This music is electrifying... Here is free translation (excerpts) from the program from their concert at the festival Paris quartiers d'ete 2008:"Lo cor de la Plana (pronounced [lu kuär de la plane]) is a male choir from Marseille, from the Plaine quarter. Six frenzied singers accompanied with percussion instruments (bendirs and tamburello), feet stomping and hand clapping. Founded in 2001, this team devoted itself to systematic recreation of the folk legacy of the Occitan language. Singing with unsurpassed frenzy all kinds of music, from the most religious to the most unbridled, from the most repetitive to the most irregular (and this quite often at the same time!), lo Cor possess this willpower, new and definitive, to be done with the traditional chant, to dramatically separate from the vocal music and polyphony... In effect, our singers are everywhere: in churches, factories, bars, festivals or theaters, not hesitant to mingle with the baffling paganism of the old Occitan milieu, with the preoccupations of the musicians of today's Marseille. Therefore they don't renounce any influences, from Bartok to Masillia Sound System, any origins, from Oran to Rove, having but a single claim to juxtapose, make resound and strip of any sense in their music all that they hear in their city and in the world around them. A police alarm, a new-born baby, the remains of a paradise or of a dream of a paradise, a well-inebriated fellow, the sheep, the wolves, in short, all the peaceful and intoxicating fury of the everyday life...According to abbé Grégoire in 1793, French is "par excellence the language of virtues, courage and liberty" whereas according to the Gazette du Midi in 1833 "Patois brings superstition and separatism, the French should speak the language of liberty". In the beginning of the XXth century, the French republican school (way to go republicans! - guyinca) played an important role in the disappearance of the use of the Occitan language by the politics of denigration and guilt baiting. At that time "it was prohibited to spit on the ground and to speak patois"... so that you know Occitan is not a dialect but a language... the French state changed the article 2 of the constitution in 1992 to affirm that "the language of the Republic is French". This article is used (the Constitutional Counsel, the State Counsel)to promote French at the expense of not only foreign languages... but also of the languages of the french minorities (regional languages). Thus, France did not ratify the European Chart of regional or minority languages due to a dissenting opinion of the Constitutional Counsel, since multiple french politicians saw there an attack on the identity of the french republic. The debate continues to divide, the proof that the language, carrying and expressing one's mind, is an eminently political subject."

Lo Cor de La Plana are that rare thing, a group that successfully combines an extremely modern approach with a truly ancient, almost primaeval vibe. Their repertoire spans 19thC protest songs, early-modern religious chants and up to the minute descriptive soundscape songs of Marseilles life. Watching them live earlier this year I was struck by how devotionally trance-inducing (in the same way that dervishes whirl) they can be, songs blended in and out of dances and morphed into chants, all driven by complicated and involving rhythms.Buy this CD, you won't regret it.

Saw these guys live at a festival, they were great. Their music is hard to describe. Great beats, Morrocan/Bollywood in parts but very accessable.

Lo Cor de La Plana are that rare thing, a group that successfully combines an extremely modern approach with a truly ancient, almost primaeval vibe. Their repertoire spans 19thC protest songs, early-modern religious chants and up to the minute descriptive soundscape songs of Marseilles life. Watching them live last week I was struck by how devotionally trance-inducing (in the same way that dervishes whirl) they can be, songs blended in and out of dances and morphed into chants, all driven by complicated and involving rhythms.Buy this CD, you won't regret it.

Lo Cor De La Plana are from Marseille and sing in dialect. Their songs are original compositions but draw heavily on the folk tradition with north African influences.The harmonies and arrangements are very sophisticated, driven along by foot stomping, clapping and some hand-held percussion instruments.

6 singers, 1 drummer and a lot of feet. The nearest reference I can think of is Ladysmith Black Mambazo with a touch of Gogol Bordello - actually rather more than a touch. Give La Noviota or La Vielha a listen - you'll end up buying it.

ce groupe chante en provençal, langue un peu oubliée; mais toutes les chansons sont traduites et la mélodie est magnifique. à découvrir absolument.