France - Pas de Loire to Île de France

 

Angers Castle

We continue our journey of northern France and travel up the Loire valley to Angers, where world music band Lo'Jo is based.  They were formed in 1982 around singer/keyboardist Denis Péan and violin and kora player Richard Bourreau, blending French folk with strong gypsy and North African influences.  This a song from their 2017 album Fonetiq Flowers called Café des Immortels:

'Tropical Jazz' band Electric Vocuhila are from Tours in the Centre-Val de Loire region.  They blend Jazz with several African urban music styles such as Sébène from the Congo, Ethio-Jazz, Zimbabwean Sungura and Tsapiky from Madagascar.  Their tunes possess a unique hypnotic, danceable groove.  This is the title track from their recently released album Palaces:

From just south of Tours, in Chambray-Les-Tours, hails singer/songwriter Isabelle Geoffroy, better known as Zaz, who combines traditional chanson with jazz influences.  This is one of her early hits called Je Veux from her self-titled 2010 debut album:

As we get drawn into the whirlpool that is Paris we first stop in the north-western suburb of Jouy-le-Moutier in the region of Île de France, where we meet the family outfit Les Ogres de Barback.  They consist of 4 siblings of the Burguière family, brothers Fred and Sam and twin sisters Alice and Mathilde, all of them multi-instrumentalists.  They've been playing French chansons with various other world music influences since 1994.  On their latest album, Amours Grises & Colères Rouges, released in 2019, guest artists include Benin band Eyo'Nlé and Israeli singer Lior Shoov.  This is one of their more traditional style songs from that album called P'tit Coeur:

Singer/songwriter and mandolin player Féloche grew up in Clichy on the outskirts of Paris.  His musical CV includes a stint in a Ukrainian punk band before setting out on his solo career, playing a variety of styles.  In 2013 he released the album Silbo.  The title song is partly sung in the ancient whistling language of the island of Gomera, part of the Canary Islands, called Silbo in tribute to his step father, who was a political refugee from there.  It made him something of a hero on Gomera for encouraging a revival of the language, which was used widely during the 1940's and 50's to evade Franco's police.

And to finish off here's a song from his latest album released in February, Féloche and the Mandolin Orchestra.  The Song is called Chiq Planète:

That's it for today, next we'll explore the music of Paris.  As usual you can follow my virtual journey on my Tripline map.