Mosaïk

Many artists from many different places feel that in order to bring contemporary audiences to traditional material, they need to dress it up a bit, rather than letting it stand on its own merits. Canadian trio Vishtèn apply such costumery here to a variety of Francophone source material – from their own areas of the Maritime provinces to Louisiana’s Cajun country. Pascal Miousse (fiddle and mandolin), was brought up on Quebec’s remote Magdalen Islands, and twins Emmanuelle (bodhrán and tin whistle) and Pastelle LeBlanc (accordion and piano) come from Prince Edward Island. Several of the tracks on Mosaïk are presented as elongated dance sets influenced by Scottish and Irish traditions as well as by French. They intersperse traditional numbers with original compositions created and delivered in much the same user-friendly mode.

The embellishment of their traditional instruments with electric guitar and bass synthesizer may well be to sustain the band’s interest as much as their fans’. But listeners of an orthodox stripe are likely to judge some of it superfluous, as they also might find the group’s tendencies to inject swing rhythms, or insert repeats into lyric lines. However, to Vishtèn’s credit, the three of them have mastered an impressively large arsenal of instruments and their singing, in close-harmony French patois, is clear and impressive.