Confluence #2: Le Chant des Sources

Usually made of hard wood, the kaval is an end-blown pastoral flute found in Turkey, Armenia, Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania. It long ago escaped solo origins to lodge in folk ensembles. French performer Courroy has spent three decades mastering this instrument. However, an entire solo kaval CD could be monotonous, so Courroy has chosen material from the described geographical area, assembled an ensemble of vocalists plus talented instrumentalists to interpret songs and dances, and made all musical arrangements.

Patrice Gabet’s bowed bass introduces ‘O Skaros’, before kaval is heard. ‘En Descendant de la Mer Noire’ proves strongly rhythmic with flourishes on tombak and tapan drums. ‘Toudoru’ from the Strandja region of south-eastern Bulgaria begins with a plangent chord on Lionel Romieu’s plucked tamboura before Mariyana Pavlova’s lead vocals, finishing with a polyphonic choir. Mireille Collignon’s viole de gamba, plus kaval, deftly complement Pavlova’s tempered voice on Bulgarian Thracian ‘Prituri sa Planinata’. Sokratis Sinopoulos’ Pontic lyre announces ‘Hamelilon’, with Pontic Greek lyrics by Katerina Papadopoulou. ‘Bavna’ from Bulgaria’s Dobrudja region features a four-person choir. In ‘M’exeis Berdemeno, M’exeis’, hailing from pre-1923 Asia Minor, Maria Simoglu’s vocals are offset by plucked oud and mandolin, plus violin. ‘Altın Tasta Gül Kuruttum’ was composed by Nevzad Hanım (1902-1992), born in an Ottoman harem, with Gülay Hacer Toruk’s voice bizarrely accompanied by harps. Bulgarian Rhodopi dance ‘Krivo Sadovsko Horo’ opens with a santur fanfare before tapan and darbuka percussion. This intriguing album finishes with Françoise Atlan singing Armenian ‘Sareri’, backed somewhat oddly by bowed bass and violin, plus kaval.