Search - Gacha Empega :: Polyphonies Marseillaises

So much sound from just three people

Carsten Schelp | 08/13/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Beautiful. I was just on vacation in Montpellier on the south coast of France, and happened to hear Gacha Empega in concert, sponsored by the Esperanto Congress. I had to buy their CD before I went home, fearing that I wouldn't find it anywhere else. They are singing in Occitane, a non-Latin language of southern France, and it sounds like nothing else. The nearest thing I could compare it to would be Bulgarian women's choral music."

Support your local polyphonies!

Carsten Schelp | Germany | 11/15/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To me, this album is a very exciting and satisfying experience. If you are into nonclassical polyphonic vocal music and into rolling (hand-)drumbeats, then this is for you. What's even cooler: this album has been produced in a very dynamic, couraged way. Collages of "the word on the street" and studio outtakes are woven in between the tracks. In a few spots they make use of electronic sounds (fear not, this happens so tastefully, that the "modern" elements are taken over by the "tradition", not vice versa!). All in all it makes you feel like you were walking through modern-day Marseille. And I hold that authenticity in much higher esteem than "traditional" purism. This music is clearly non-mainstream, non-commercial but extremely hip! Wherever you live, support your local polyphies! I wouldn't compare their sound to Bulgarian vocal music, though. What comes to my mind is Georgia and Ukraine. Feel free to email me, if you have any other ideas or recommendations! I saw Gacha Empega perform live with the Algerian Ensemble El Hillal on the Folkfestival in Rudolstadt/Germany. Those two musics blended so well (ha, it's the mediterranean neighbourhood, after all). Stunning performance! Cheers, Carsten"