Claudia Schiller Music / AEPEM

Paris Centre is a compilation of central France bagpipe music, played by a considerable collection of the current players -- some famous in the scene, some not, but all fine players. There must be 10 or 20 different pipers featured, plus some notable box and hurdy-gurdy players. There are solos, duets, and a roomful of bagpipes on one cut. There are big cornemuses (20 and 30 inch), lots of cabrettes, and even a little bit of the sweet little royal court bagpipe played by Dominique Paris. There are many tunes here, mostly somewhat obscure, all of them very nicely arranged. This CD is great listening, and a nice sampler of what can be heard on the pipes in central France these days. Highly recommended.

Clips:

• Un Jour D'ascension (marche, Berry)

• La Chèvre Noyée (scottish, Berry)

Where Paris Centre is focused on the bagpipe, Bourrées & Montagnardes is all about the hurdy-gurdy (vielle a roue). It features Jean-Michel heavily, with Jacques backing him up on pipes, and very little other musical accompaniment, and the material comes from the collections made by J.B. Bouillet in Auvergne in the mid-1800's. They are great tunes, very cheerful and danceable, and there are lots of them (no surprise). This album is fun for the casual listener (much like Paris Centre) who just wants to enjoy the hurdy-gurdy in its element, but also contains a lot of interesting tunes for the experienced player to learn. Very nice stuff.

Clips:

• Bourrées De Champeix (bourrées, Auvergne)

• Montagnardes De Saint-Nectaire (bourrées, Auvergne)

"Les Transformations" is, like the previous two JM/Jacques CD's, chock full of tunes, mostly unfamiliar to me. This one specializes in dark tunes, primarily from the Nivernais (Nevers) area of Berry. The instrumentation and arranging are great, keeping a very traditional sound without things getting repetitious. There are fiddle-box duos, two piper duos, fiddle and hurdy-gurdy, fiddle and pipes...you get the idea. While everyone is a terrific player, I especially enjoy Gilles Poutoux on diatonic. He is one of the very few box players I've heard who delivers a very traditional sound playing along with pipers and gurdy players on minor and modal tunes. Gilles gets featured a lot on this recording, and I really like everything he does. Julien Barbances on fiddle and pipes is no slouch either, and Jean-Michel and Jacques are enjoyable as always. Definitely get this one if you're hungry for interesting new tunes.

Clips:

• En Revenant Des Noces (mazurka, Berry)

• Je Fais L'amour A Une Brune (2x bourrees, Berry)

Carre d'Auvergne consists of four musicians whose specialty is old-style Auvergne music in the Martin Cayla tradition. Dominique Paris on pipes should need no introduction, and Christine Donnard on hurdy-gurdy is an excellent player (and a delightful person as well), along with Christine's husband Francis on fiddle and Jean-Marie Cantaloube on chromatic accordion. This music is great fun if you like Auvergne music (and maybe you should get to know this stuff if it's unfamiliar), complete with pipes and accordion with lots of tremolo. I play this one a lot. They did a terrific job, and the selections are mostly not ones you encounter. Highly recommended.

Clips:

• Tucha Los Ganhons Molinera (3x bourrees)

• Polka A Ladonne (polka)

If you enjoy the old-style Auvergne music of Carre d'Auvergne, you probably will also like this happy compilation of Auvergne tunes by fiddler Basile Bremaud and chromatic button accordionist Herve Capel. It's just the two of them, plus a bit of foot stomping, and they are fine players and creative without extending past the limits of the traditional Auvergne music genre. Basile appears in various bands on other recordings (notably the wonderful Fai Petar on AMTA) and is just a terrific fiddler, as well as singing on a couple of the traditional tunes with lyrics. Herve is no slouch on the chromatic accordion, either. Great stuff!

Clips:

• Le Curé De La Chapelle (3x bourree)

• Scottish à Tournadre (scottish)

This is another recording of Auvergne music that demonstrates just what two musicians can kick out without any studio tricks or other musicians. In this case it's fiddlers Laurence Dupré and Olivier Wely, and the two together have just an amazing sound on two fiddles and a tapping foot. The style is mostly hard-driving Auvergne bourree, in the tradition of Cafe-Charbons 30 years ago. They also throw in the other dance genres of French trad music, all of it eminently danceable. You could happily dance to these guys for hours. I really like this recording.

Clips:

• Bourree De Martial Ceppe (3x bourree)

• Amusons-Nous Fillettes (3x bourree, sung)

Philippe "Rando" Randonneix plays the chabrette, the pipes of the Limousin. They're similar to the musette du centre of Berry and a little like the cabrette of Auvergne, but sweeter. This CD is delightful, and hands down the best solo cd by a central France piper I've heard. All of the tunes are sweet and danceable, and it is very lightly produced with bagpipe taking center stage and the several side musicians who appear (typically one to a cut, including some enjoyable traditional singers) never distracting from Rando's playing. I really love this recording. You can listen to it again and again.

Clips:

• Dans Un Pré Comme Dans Un Bois (scottishes)

• A Saint Pardoux (waltzes)

Alright, so I'm a grouchy old guy who likes his traditional music traditional, and I am not much of a fan of doumbeks and ouds with my cornemuses and hurdy-gurdies. So La Machine will appeal to a different crowd than myself. I do, however, respect their talent, as Julien Barbances on pipes and Gregory Jolivet on hurdy-gurdy are great musicians (Julien plays with Carre de Deux, Gregory plays with the current incarnation of Blowzabella). And there are some very good orginal compositions here. So if world-music fusion with French trad is something up your alley, definitely check out La Machine.

Clips:

• Les rodeurs

• Le deserteur

La Machine is back with a second recording, very much like the first but perhaps a little more subdued and more polished. The band is very tight. If you liked the first La Machine, you'll definitely like this one as well.

Clips:

• La Toupie

• L'ane

This is a meditative, rather introspective solo recording by piper Julien Barbances, featuring a number of original tunes as well as an interesting assortment of lesser-known traditional tunes from Cantal, Lot, Correze, and elsewhere. Several of the originals have a Middle Eastern flavor, much like his work with La Machine, and others are more rooted in French trad, but all of them interesting. Put on this recording after a frantic day and space out on the pipes.

Clips:

• Approachez pour entendre

• Soun Soun