The Saint-Élie-de-Caxton quintet is shuffling its cards on this seventh album in more than twenty years of career by opting for an entirely instrumental repertoire, a first in the history of the most colorful traditional Quebec group in terms of orchestrations. , timbres (bouzouki, harmonicas, the always superb flutes and brass by Luc Murphy) and musical influences. At the heart of the album, the song Tapiskwan sipi – name given by the Atikamekw to the Saint-Maurice River – recalls the orchestra’s inexhaustible passion for its Mauricie, a passion shared here with Karine Awashish, co-founder of the Coop Nitaskinan, who does not sing, but testifies, with so many ’emotions. The new musical ideas of the group shine in the absence of text: this slow, sustained rhythm, cadencing the real Coucoucache, the country-blues harmonica flying over La Bostonnais, the percussive sounds manipulated by studio effects which give a modern character to the beautiful Crossing the Marie-Louise and Mccormick, the jazz swing of comedy Happy town. A disc full of spirit and freshness.
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