Marvelous, haunting compositions
Rashed Chowdhury | 08/18/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
""À Bercy" was the first Corsican CD I ever listened to, and was a great introduction to the polyphonic Corsican style. I Muvrini manages to convey a rare depth of emotion in almost every single track. The songs alternate between merry, sing-along tunes and powerful, slow, haunting melodies that transport you to the rocky streams of the Corsican countryside. The mood of the CD is set by the first two tracks: the first one, "Ne fermez pas la porte" is a poem in French, accompanied by music, that speaks in strong terms of the Corsicans' aspiration for freedom. The second track, by contrast, is fast and extravagant, joyously sung in Corsican. While the CD alternates between these two moods, all the other tracks contain songs, almost all of them in Corsican.The only thing that does not fit in with the rest of the album are the song titles: they are mostly listed in English and French in an album that seeks to assert a Corsican identity. Apart from this matter of editorial choice, I found the album to be thoroughly refreshing and highly enjoyable."