Daily Telegraph, CD Review >>
Lo'Jo
Au Cabaret Sauvage
Living together in a big home in Liore Valley, drawing on an amazing variety of global influences, Lo'Jo are true 21st century global villagers as ineluctably French as Camembert. There's a timeless gallic theatricality to Denis Pean's Gitane-flavoured vocals, while the backing-singing El Mourid sisters sound as thought they were recruited in a local cafe for some agit-prop performance whose plot is long forgotten. But the group's creativity and musicianship are not in quesiton. Les Humans showcases violinist Richard Bourreau's brillance on the kora. Petit Homme his deftness on the one-stringed Saharan fiddle. Sampled film themes are pitted against Moroccan percussion, barrel organs against a Malian hunter's harp.
This is an intriguing album, whose resonances from film and surrealism draw you in. And while a two-page glossary's worth of strange instruments is no guarantee of interest, you feel this album's textures and atmospheres could not have been acheived any other way.
Mark Hudson 03/01/03
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