Racines

With Racines the French trio Joulik range around the globe. ‘Gwannaw Ay’ includes Wolof proverbs, ‘Dans Mon Ker’ is in the Creole of Réunion and ‘Ta Niata’ is a Greek song. Linguistic diversity is matched here by musical variety; there’s something of kannakkol, Indian verbal percussion, in ‘Tamani’, and a vocal filigree in ‘Papel de Plata’, yet the album begins with a deep drone and the full-throated singing of Hungary in ‘Moldvaï’.

Joulik – Mélissa Zantman (accordion, percussion, kaval and mandola), Claire Menguy (cello) and Robin Celse (guitars, mandola, percussion and looper) – have been on their musical travels for a decade. Their singing, in harmony, unison, forthright and delicate, is excellent and they play their many instruments beautifully. Joulik’s idea is to create an ‘imaginary territory, a vast country without borders’ where different music and languages can wander freely. So ‘Papel de Plata’ sounds both Irish and Indian. In Racines – which translates as ‘Roots’ – different traditions converse with one another. But, like conversations between people who know only a smattering of each other’s language, it can be difficult to say anything of consequence. So, despite all their wandering, Joulik always sound like what they are – a really good French folk band. These roots spread wider than they go deep.