Chantent en Français

Chantent en Français starts with a jaunty bout of string-picking, strumming, a squeeze of accordion, a parting curtain of strings as you’re launched into the tale of ‘El Dorado, the first of the tracks on this compilation album from Berlin collective 17 Hippies. As the title promises, these are French songs that have entered the repertoire of the band founded in 1995 in Berlin by Christopher Blenkinsop (bouzouki, ukulele, vocals), bassist Carsten Wegener, guitarist Lutz Ulbrich, Kristin Sauer on accordion and vocals, and bagpiper Reinhard Lüderitz. They’ve since grown into a 13-strong troupe, and their free concerts at the Hippie Haus Tanz have become a thing of legend.

There’s a strong Balkan influence here, mixed into a cloudy tincture of French chanson and American folk. Wailing strings, clarinets, accordions and bugles predominate. On ‘Ifni Ifni’, world-class American guitarist Marc Ribot guests with a slim, jagged guitar line. The band is augmented by a whole fleet of musical friends and relations, the Hardcore Troubadors among them. The spare, shimmering ballads voiced by Kiki Sauer – the likes of ‘Solitaire, ‘Moi’ and ‘Son Mystère’ – stand out the most.

17 Hippies represent an older, alternative pan-European ideal. Along with bands like Think of One and the UK’s Chumbawamba, they’re survivors of a now long-gone, semi-nomadic counterculture. There’s a spirit of unification in their pan-European song forms, and an atlas of influences that plays out strongly across this select, 15-year history.