Pays de Ploërmel. Chanteurs, sonneurs et conteurs traditionnels/Dastum/2016
Dedicated to the Ploërmel region, this double album, published in 2016 by Dastum, strives to offer as representative an overview as possible of the rich diversity of the local singing tradition, illustrated here through a wide selection of laments, melodies, marches (walking songs), and dance songs. It also features some gems of instrumental music on the accordion and harmonica (?!), as well as a few examples of folktales.
Recorded between 1959 and 2016, the seventy-four tracks of this double CD, 3rd volume of the collection La Bretagne des Pays, presents a true anthology of the collections made in the region, particularly from the 1970s onward. Sixty-eight tradition bearers from thirty different towns and villages can be heard, including some remarkable performers. Many of them were awarded the Bogue d’Or prize (Joseph Guillot, Madeleine Lebreton, Joseph Robert, Alexis Thétiot, Arsène Griffon, Louis Rouxel, Léonie Brunel, Eugénie Alloyer, Éléonore Dréan, André Picaud...) and were perennial performers at the famous “Assembies du pëi d’Piermè” in the 1980s.
Like all entries in this series, the accompanying materials are of superb quality. The 144-page booklet paints a portrait of the Ploërmel region, details its oral traditions and dances, and provides a history of the collections made there. In addition to the lyrics, it provides short articles on each song, piece, or story, accompanied by portraits of its performers, often rich in tasty anecdotes. Finally, it is embellished with quality iconography, like the superb photographs of René-Paul Lanon where we find many 1970s-era images of iconic figures of the area.
While this recording is obviously more of a field-recording collection than a hyper-polished pop product, it might be well-suited for musicians, for example, looking to extract some tasty traditional melody lines into their own work.
~ Fañch
