Sunday, 18 January 2015

Celtic Connections , Gig

Le Vent du Nord: Misses et Messieurs

The first half of Thursday night's gig (the second was the reconstruction of GRIT) featured a number of Celtic Connections artists contextualising Martyn Bennett's work: by performing covers of his songs, or the originals that he'd sampled. The odd-one-out was Le Vent du Nord, a Québécois quartet whose close harmonies and infectiously joyful playing won us over immediately.

So last night we made our way to Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket to see the group's headline set with a festival twist: the four Messieurs were joined by seven Misses, each virtuosos in their own right from the Scottish folk scene.

misses-et-messiuers.jpgI'd seen only one of them before: Emily Smith so it was unusual to be at a unique gig listening to musicians I didn't know singing in languages I couldn't understand (French and Gaelic). The underlying music however was delightful, as were the expressions on the faces of the performers. A particular highlight was when Megan Henderson from Braebach — tonight playing in a backing string quartet — took to the centre of the stage to accompany the others on tap.

Tonight's performance is another that the BBC recorded, so look out for it on iPlayer Alba in about a fortnight.

Posted by pab at 16:49 | Comments will be back one day. Please email me instead!