Le Vent du Nord

Têtu

(Borealis)

The title of Quebecois group and Celtic Connections favourites Le Vent du Nord's eighth album translates as stubborn or obstinate. To these definitions it seems reasonable to add cheerfully stoic and exultantly defiant, as the quartet present songs, all sung in French, conveying tragedy, disappointment, revenge and betrayal with a celebratory air, borne on eminently danceable tunes and generally kicked along by the clip-clop time-keeping of Olivier Demers's foot-work. The marvellous character of their voices in their trademark call and response style may hint at darker forces but aided by arrangements of fiddle, accordion, hurdy-gurdy et al, which on Confédération become gorgeously symphonic, this is uplifting music by any standard and might even contain, dare one suggest, a radio hit in Forillon, a superbly catchy number about people being driven from their homes to create the titular national park. The mood changes slightly for the bass-and-voices L'échafaud and the following feet-and-voices interlude, but the jazz-styled Amant Volage re-establishes a swinging momentum.

Rob Adams