France - The Northeast

The town of Trimbach in Alsace

 Before leaving Paris, there is a new album out by Gypsy Balkan band La Caravane Passe called Nomadic Spririt.  It's a joyous celebration of Balkan and Gypsy inspired music blended with punk, rap, chanson, Gnawa and Latin sounds.  The title song of the album perfectly sums up the idea of this blog of borderless music.  It features Moroccon Mehdi Nassouli:

Next we are heading south to Nevers in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, where contemporary accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier was born, for something altogether more calm.  He comes from the Jazz tradition and has fused it with various world music styles, notably collaborating with Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem.  In his latest collaboration he just released an album called Rivage with classical and jazz guitarist Kevin Seddiki from Clermont-Ferrand.  Here are 3 songs, 2 of them feature on the album.  Schumansko, the opening track draws on a Bulgarian melody combined with a theme from Schumann.

I'm not sure where bagpipe and banjo player Julien Cartonnet was born, but he did record an album in 2013 called Musique Traditionelle du Nivernais-Morvan (which is proving tricky to get hold of), so we will visit this region next within the Bourgogne-Franche-Comte region.  Here he plays a rousing Scottish with accordionist Jean Thiery:

Together with accordionist Andy Cutting (whom we met in London) and James Delarre, Cartonnet is also part of Anglo-French folk outfit Topette!!.  Here's a piece from their 2019 album Rhododendron called Oblique Jig / Miss Heidi Hendy:

Next we are heading into the Vosges mountains to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in the Grand-Est region, where singer/songwriter Frédérique Dastrevigne, known simply as Fredda was born.  This song called Jours Heureux is from her upcoming album Bisolaire (available from the 13th November): 

Also from the Grand-Est region, singer/songwriter Pascal Parisot was born in Pompey, just north of Nantes. He specialises in children's songs and puts on fun shows for them.  The following song called Allons Z'enfants features on the 2011 compilation The Rough Guide to Paris Lounge:

And finally with Halloween coming up, here is an extract from a fun looking kids show he did called Mort de Rire:

This concludes our tour of the northern half of France.  We will return to explore the south of France on our way south, but next we will be heading into the Benelux countries.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.