‘Folk Music From Romandie’ by Montferrine

This CD just arrived this morning, thanks to our Hammered Dulcimer playing friend here, Nikita, and I was so delighted with it I just had to let you all know about it.

Of course, being not only a big fan of the Hammered Dulcimer & the Hurdy Gurdy, but also of the wonderful & varied music of Central France, I suppose it was obvious I was going to really like this CD.

Anyway, I'm sure many of the broadminded members of this site will also enjoy this excellent music.

This group specialise in playing the music of the French speaking region of Switzerland, so anyone who loves the German Hop Dance, Sauteuse, Schottisches, Polkas, Rondes, Brawls & Waltzes (of course), plus of course the songs of that region including those wonderful dancing songs which have two different rhythmes in them, I’m sure will enjoy this CD.

The group are:
Michel Steiner: Clarinets, Flutes, Ocarina & Vocals
Christian Abriel: Flutes, Ocarina, Percussions, Violin, Harmonica & Vocals
Diego Abriel: Hurdy-GurdY, Flutes, Percussions & Vocals
& Nikita Pfister: Accordions, Tympanon (Hackbrett) ((Hammered Dulcimer)) & Vocals

You can listen to clips of all the tracks, to see if it's your kind of music, at:
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1183630/a/Folk+Music+From+Romandie.htm

To quote from their website:

“Group “MONTFERRINE”, in the past “To the Time which Passes”, created in 1995 at the time of the Festival of the Alpine Traditional Musics of Faverges (Haute-Savoie), attempts to make revive the airs and songs traditional of the areas of French-speaking Switzerland and bordering.

Montferrines, jumping, coraules, waltz, schottishes, laments, songs to be danced, the repertory is drawn either from collections or files dating from the XIXème century (Songs of the Round of Estavayer…), or of first half of XXème (A. Rossat, J. Surdez, H. In DER Ghent…), that is to say at other groups (Bazoche, Armaillis de Conches…).

The objective of “MONTFERRINE” is to play these musics in an alive and dynamic way, while being based at the same time on the specific style to each area, but more especially on the various musical experiments of each one of its members. Arrangements are collective, while trying to remain in the spirit of the oral tradition.

The instruments all used come from the popular tradition, and all were played in French-speaking Switzerland: Flutes, hackbrett (or tympanon), quoted by J. Burdet, the hurdy-gurdy-with-wheel, which one still manufactured a few years ago in the canton of Neuchâtel, the diatonic accordion, the clarinet and the violin, still quite present, without forgetting the song and the percussions.”

To learn more about this group though, you can check out their website at:
http://montferrine.sav.org/

Don’t worry, you can read the translated version there too & the CD booklet also contains all the information in English too!

There’s also a Video clip of this group on their website, but if possible, I would recommend you go for the very large file - 23MO

# Posted on May 28th 2007 by Ptarmigan

Very nice, but I didn't know you played clarinet Ptarm...

# Posted on May 28th 2007 by ceolachan

& who's the scary guy with the 3-row?

# Posted on May 28th 2007 by ceolachan

Aye 'ceol', he does look he could be the next 'Dubliner'! Believe me 'c', Michel has a lot more hair than there is on my poor old head!

3 Row player is also the Hackbrett-ist () & none other than Nikita Pfister, one of our fellow sessioneers here!

# Posted on May 29th 2007 by Ptarmigan

I seem to recall an old discussion thread where we were using Swiss folk music (as if we knew what we were talking about...) as an example of twee, crass tastelessness. We obviously did NOT know what we were talking about! Well done Ptarm, lovely stuff, from those clips.

# Posted on May 30th 2007 by Rudall the time

No Ptarm, you don't say...

HEY! Nikita, we're talking about yuh!

"Duff, a beer" ~ Key, that's because you'd always thought 'The Sound of Music' was Swiss trad...

# Posted on May 31st 2007 by ceolachan

Nikita Pfister

http://www.thesession.org/members/display/29816
"Hi ! I'm a box and hammered dulcimer player from Lausanne, Switzerland..." ~

# Posted on May 31st 2007 by ceolachan

The Sound of Switzerland

Some guys here seems to mix this up with beer tent music from Germany...
If you want to get informed have a look at
http://www.folkmusic.ch/publish/vm_formationen.asp
I can recommend i.e.
http://www.doppel-bock.ch/
http://www.thomierb.ch/erben.html
http://www.pflanzplaetz.ch/
http://www.hackbrett.com/smm/smm_frames.htm
http://www.sulp.ch/
and for irish sounds
http://www.irishfolk.ch

# Posted on May 31st 2007 by swisspiper

Hey Guys,
thanks for the comments... just sorry to say the group doesn't exist any more... so the Montferrine site is a bit out of date....
but don't worry, we're still active in the french-swiss music field, and new things should come out in a near future !

# Posted on June 3rd 2007 by Nikita Pfister

‘Folk Music From Romandie’ by Montferrine

What a pity Nikita - you sounded great!

I look forward to hearing the new line-up!

# Posted on June 3rd 2007 by Ptarmigan