The first two are essential actors of the Quebec trad scene: Nicolas Boulerice, the singer and old man of the orchestra Le Vent du Nord, alongside his old friend Olivier Demers, violinist. Robert Deveaux? It was during a musical session that the duo met this other fan of musical traditions, singer and violinist from Cape Breton, presented as a “scholar” of the traditional Acadian repertoire. It is the premise ofFolk art, album on which Deveaux and Boulerice sing unfamiliar tunes from here and from the Maritimes. The orchestral stripping serves the songs marvelously as much as the raw voice of Deveaux: apart from the collaboration of the harmonicist David Brunelle (on the tender When I was 15) and Daniel Roy (on He was a handsome gallant) with piercing flageolet phrases, the whole album rests on the shoulders of the trio and their string instruments, their violins, their mandolin. Something immediately touching, authentic and surprisingly modern emerges.
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