Before Clartés there was a spontaneous club of young people (only a few at the beginning and later, at the time of "Moi qui n'étais rien" about fifteen members) that used to play and sing the glory of God at the small church of Saint-Marcelin, in Isère. At first, they were singing hymns of praise that were given to them but soon started to write

As amazing as it seems, there was a time when the French national education wanted to put out a collection of traditional songs for the pupils and their teachers. The bill of specifications was to have songs simple enough to be sung by children with the help of non-musician teachers, which involved mainly a work on the tessitura of the songs. This

"De l'arbre à l'oreille" (from tree to ear) refers to the great ability of Jean Ribouillault to make the trees sing: he was both an accomplished musician (he wrote all the songs of this album, all in a pure traditional folk style, an area where he excels) and a talented luthier (most of the instruments use for this recording were handcrafted by hi

Three years have passed since "Veillée" was released in 1977. A lot happened during that time. All the money earned from the first record went into buying new recording equipment and instruments. Bidulfolk also had the time to improve its quality of playing and singing and to increase its number to seven members. The music is still homemade (recor

Les Gens de Cherves was much more than a musical band. It was an association (law of 1901) created in 1971 and called like this because their members (who varied over time) were indeed from Cherves, a small town near Poitiers. Their activities were as diverse as creating a museum about the peasant life, doing research, restoring a mill, collecting

"Terra Incognita" was released in 1986 two years after Les Musiciens de la Vallée des Lacs in which Christophe Toussaint took part. This time, Toussaint delivers an album of all original material dedicated to the épinette des Vosges, his favorite instrument (both for music and lutherie) which also features some spellbinding new-agey flutes (like

Surprisingly not much information can be found on the Internet about Les Témoins which was one of the top 3 best bands on the Jef label with Les Reflets and Promesses. It was also probably one of the most highly-regarded groups of the French Christian folk scene, and one of the most influential. What sets apart Les Témoins is a high level of song

Les Musiciens de la vallée des lacs (from the Vosges region) was the first group of Christophe Toussaint who is better known in the collector circles for his album "Terra Incognita" recorded in 1986. The band's set consists of both covers and self-penned material and reflects despite being essentially a trad folk album their wide-ranging influence

A mysterious band of highly skilled troubadours composed of three boys and a girl with an angelic voice. Their repertoire of eleven, mostly anonymous songs covers a time-period over half a millennium from the fourteenth century to the Industrial revolution but their style of music remains the same all along (except maybe in the false street song "P

The first time this record came across my hands, I didn't buy it while it was cheap and recommended to me by the seller. Don't do the same mistake. Yes, the title of the album may frighten some of you, yes, the cover is ugly, and yes, Mannick, the middle-of-the-road singer (who also recorded with the interesting band Les Collégiennes de la Chanson