Surrounded by handmade instruments, French folk singer, harpist, spinet and hurdy-gurdy player Emmanuelle Parrennin delivered an entrancing solo set to a winter crowd. Stripped of some of the more electronic, psychedelic tones that appeared on Maison Rose and Pérélandra, Parrennin creates an unearthly atmostphere with her vocals and a wired approach to instrumentation. Though in the past Parrennin has collected songs around rural France in a similar manner to the work carried out by Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins, this isn't simply revival folk; there's a tinge of a strange future to every song.
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Emmanuelle Parrennin / vocals, harp, spinet, hurdy-gurdy
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Tracklisting
1. Le Rêve
2. La Bar Mitsva
3. Laisse Filer
4. Le Son De Ta Voix
5. Le Secret
6. Entre Moi - Ce Matin à Frémontel
7. Hurdy Gurdy Drone ( improvisation )
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Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Friday 3rd November 2017 by Shaun Crook. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Jonathan Crabb. Artwork by Oli Barratt.
Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC
Emmanuelle Parrenin sings (in French) and plays the hurdy-gurdy, various harps, the thumb piano, the spinet des Vosges, the dulcimer, singing bowls… Founding figure of the revivalist folk scene in France, she toured everywhere and played with Gentiane or Melusine, as well as Didier Malherbe, Vincent Segal or Alan Stivell.
She is, however, best known for having recorded thirty years ago an enigmatic and beautiful album, “Maison Rose” highly sought and thankfully reissued : where ultimate post-folk meets trad and experimental electro-acoustic.
