EVOCATIVE FOLK-ROCK DRAWING ON A DEEP WELL OF STORIES
Wegferend are a French band who have recently released the second chapter of their En Autremonde (In Another World), the first having been released on EP in 2019. You can see more on their Bandcamp page at https://wegferend.bandcamp.com/
The band draw from many influences on a folk-rock album oozing with panache.
The band are Alexia Cazaméa vocals & recorders, Manon Cazaméa 6 & 12 strings guitars and vocals, and Thomas Boissier percussions, Irish low whistle, and vocals. There are a couple of guest musicians appearing, namely Pierre Burette with cello on "En Autremonde" and Jeff Grimal with Guitar on "Druide".
We should also make note here of some very impressive artwork by Marine Joumard. You can see more at https://marinejoumard.com/
Gedim opens the album. The lyrics are in French, but the sense I get of this is a traveller wondering along an eternal path seeking the source of life. It is the longest track on the album, weighing in at just short of the epic ten minutes length. Immediately, you are struck by the warmth of the acoustic guitar of Manon and the collective, especially the wonderful percussion, evoking a middle eastern pastiche and the work by engineer Frédéric Blanchard and mastering by Laurent Marc deserve special mention for a crisp clean sounding record. The vocals of Alexia are ethereal and something special. The final passage is remarkable in the sense of the dramatic it brings.
Holy Ghost follows. I believe the track is about a politically active friar from Florence, Girolamo Savonarola, who preached against papal and local corruption and the exploitation of the poor, and alongside a couple of devotees, was hanged and burned at the stake for his troubles. The Renaissance folk chimes with this perfectly and there is an urgency to the music, the thumping drums especially pushing the music along. If you ever doubted that the humble recorder could be used as an instrument to provide dramatic effect, then look no further than this. The official video is embedded below. This is a particularly evocative folk history piece of music, raging against indignity and, as with the finest folk music, you can easily apply much of the anger to modern day demagogues.
The Wayfarer is up next. It evokes the Biblical travellers who searched for truth and God by foot across often hazardous terrain, thrilling at the danger and refusing to conform to societal or religious norms. It is another longish track at nine minutes. For those of you unfamiliar with this band, can I make a comparison with the classic Simon & Garfunkel track on Bridge Over Troubled Water, El Condor Pasa? This track is not derivative, but when comparing them, I mean to draw attention to the similar Americana folk combination of acoustic guitar and wind instrument, but here with a delightful Celtic-infused sensibility. The vocal harmonies are impressive and the track bursts with an energy some four minutes in, and here especially you can hear some heavy rock influences. The “crow you own the sky” passage is delightfully gothic, with some incredible voices, thumping percussion, and wind combining to create to the close a magical invocation of earth and god astride the peak of the traveller’s destination. Listen to it embedded below, a very impressive track with such a range of ideas and musical execution.
Druide is up next. For millennia, a mysterious, and feared order, who, in Britain shortly after the Roman invasion by emperor Claudius (he of I, Claudius fame) faced a pogrom aimed at their complete annihilation. They survived and outlasted their nemesis and will likely outlast the Christian Church. These days modern media and corporates tend to show pictures of them looking nice and quaint at locations such as Stonehenge or Glastonbury without the slightest understanding of the life affirming spiritual energies of adherents. The track is born of the night and a witness to ancient stories and time itself. The opening guitar is stunning alongside more impressive percussive work. The vocals bring the night wonderings to life very well and the intensity is turned well and truly up in the final couple of minutes.
Lost in Reveries is a great title for this instrumental piece for daydreamers everywhere. From the off with the deep guitar notes and soaring voice, there is a truly dreamlike quality. The recorder is so gorgeous when it rises above the increasingly intense guitar with the thump thump below as we get a lush folk-rock track with melody combined with urgent strength always at its heart.
Jos l’uèlh de la Breissa follows, and I admit I have little sense of the lyrical meaning behind a track I think is rooted in Catalonian legend. It opens with wind howling and the musical sense of an impending storm or perhaps the need to run from an aggressor. It is played at a fair old pace, and the male vocals are far harsher than what came before with a wistful female cry above this. The drums crash, the wind instruments wail, the guitars riff. As the song enters its final three minutes, we enter wholly pastoral territory, with the clean female vocal replacing the harsh male voice, and the guitars back to the melodic heart of the album. It is astoundingly beautiful and such a contrast to the harsh first half.
We close with the instrumental title track which opens with a thunderstorm, the voice evoking the sense of fear and anticipation when the air crackles with violence. Burette adds a dark dimension with his impressive work on cello. The strings are crying as the Other World unveils itself to us. The close with the violence inherent in the shamanic bass drum is disturbing and a fine way to finish the album.
I am grateful to Anne-Claire Rallo of Bad Dog Promotions (a friend of this website) for sending me this album to review. It is a fine example of modern folk-rock music and comes highly recommended to you.