Ukronia

This is an album rich in scholarship and serious in intent. Antique songs from Upper Brittany are sung in the local dialect of Gallo and arranged mainly for period stringed instruments including the lyra viol, reconstructed for the first time since the 17th century for this project. Ukronia explores what Breton music would have sounded like today if the old modal song form had not been eclipsed by modern harmony. The results, fronted by Marchand’s strident high-pitched singing, are far from easy listening, but they repay sticking the course. The most striking tracks here are the complaintes from the repertoire of Jeannette Maquignon, a famous passeuse (passer-on of folklore). Slow songs such as ‘La Belle qui Cherche son Amant’ and ‘Ma Maitresse est Loin d’Ici’ are set to a spine-tingling bass drone, an ominously tapping drum and flute, which call to mind a Breton version of The Wicker Man. If played too late at night, they will have you checking that the back door is locked and the cat isn’t nailed to it. Even the energetic numbers have a hint of grimness to them. An altogether fascinating record, if not one for all occasions.