Trio DCA
Musique de Haute-Auvergne
Modal Pleinjeu

This album showcases three musicians with respectable credentials in French folk music teaming up to produce an energetic recording featuring mostly dance tunes, with a few songs added to the mix for good measure. Almost entirely acoustic, performed by Dominique Paris (cabrette), Hervé Capel (chromatic accordion) and Anne-Lise Foy (vielle-à-roue, vocals), this music might surprise listeners new to French folk music with the power the players produce. The bulk of this album is dance music, after all, and there are few groups capable of generating more power than a group of inspired dancers and the musicians who drive them.

The dance tunes and sets include bourées, mazurkas, polkas and waltzes, allowing the three to demonstrate their ensemble talents, with the three instruments putting out intertwining melody lines one moment, then blending together to turn the power up a notch, like different parts of the same organism. Solo pieces offered by Dominique Paris ("Valse Tyrolienne d'Auvergne" and "Bourée du Papèt / Aqui per auela posca") and Hervé Capel ("Le curé de la chapelle") contain some lively and beautiful work, and are a great opportunity to hear the individual voices of their instruments. Anne-Lise Foy, besides illustrating how she has gained a reputation as one of the finest vielle-à-roue players in Europe, handles the vocal chores nicely on five tracks. Guest Denis Gasser adds some beautiful touches on acoustic guitar here and there. He's also credited with synthesizer, but his work on that instrument is extremely subtle, never drawing the music out of the traditional folk vein.

These players show that they have a deep respect and love for the traditional music of France, with very little "envelope pushing", but this is by no means a dry, scholarly document. They're having fun as well, and it's very apparent. - Larry Looney

CD available from cdRoots

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