Search - Gwazigan :: Y'avait du Monde

Gwazigan have achieved a truly international lineup, with the three regular Breton members flanked by a Quebecois and a Malagasy, plus four Breton guest artists. Their material is suitably diverse, ranging from Quebecois and Cape Breton tunes to Cajun, Breton, and Scottish inspirations and finding the common thread between them. In keeping with the predominantly North American repertoire, they have an especially fine fiddle sound with a hint of bluegrass providing a honed edge to the overall lilt, but the flutes, pipes, and banjo are also charming and idiomatic. The lead vocalist easily leaps from French chanson to Celtic balladry and even keeps his head during the one mildly sappy tune on the album, a sentimental ditty called "Labrador" (which extols the beauty of a Canadian province, not a dog). --Christina Roden