Camin Sobiran

Listen casually to this latest release from the Pau-based label in South-West France and you might mistake its minimalism for insubstantiality. Listen deeply, however, and the intimate polyphonic harmonies of Thomas Baudoin and Lutxi Achiary, accompanied only by a traditional Pyrenean tambourin à cordes and/or a shruti box drone, cast a subtle spell.

The pair sing (like label-mates, Cocanha), in the Occitan language, of love and other everyday human matters deriving from the oral Gascon tradition. On ‘Dins La Forèst del Rèi’ and the final ‘Vrè Diu de Mas Amors’ they sing a cappella. On the second part of the epic 15-minute long ‘Joena l’An Maridada/La Naranja’, only the intermittent plucked notes of a tambourin à cordes accompany the voices, but it’s enough to suggest incipient drama. On ‘A Malaja La Bugada’ and elsewhere, the drone of the shruti box evokes the ascetic spirit of Indian classical music. The drone works most symbiotically with the resonant hammered tambourin on the marvellous ‘La Hèira d’Estang’ to build a latent power. And on ‘Aqueras Montinas’ the combination of plaintive voices, plangent tambourin and what sounds like a jaw harp is both weird and intriguing. One to savour in quiet contemplation.