NI/New Internationalist, CD Review >>
Not so much a band as a tribe. That's the way Lo'Jo- a collective that's included circus performers, poets and filmmakers- see themselves. It's an identification that goes with the love of movement and freedom, musical and otherwise, that bounds through their latest album, Au Cabaret Sauvage.
Don't be alarmed by the 'savegery' the title appears to promise. The Lo'Jo troubadours are interested in the world's association with 'natural'- and are helped along to no small extent by the rough and ready sandpaper tones of vocalist Denis Pean. Combining French chanson permeated by rai, Mailian rhythms (the band was instrumental in founding Timbuktu's 'Festival in the Desert') and a flourish of Roma, Au Cabaret Sauvage demonstrates a clear internationalist agenda. "Memoire d'homme', for example, could come from a dozen locations. The swooping vocal modulations suggest North Africa, while a violin hints at east European klezmer.
But the album is best at its most frenetic: listen to the kora driven vivacity of 'Les Humains'. With their travellers' perspectives and rich cluster of languages. Lo'Jo give the impression that journeying, figuratvie and literal, is their ideal state of being. 04/01/03
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