Some thoughts about Sieur et Dame – Amour et Papouasie (Love and Papua) album by Kythibong Records
Hey Sieur et Dame! Million merci for your new album. It is the best, most interesting and most peculiar record of recent years for me. When I got it, I listened to it three times in succession, and was flabbergasted. Oh my God! What is it? And it is a difficult question. Such like a renaissance market-place knock-about farce or an opera-buffa, or something musical Commedia dell’arte. Starring an angel and a gnome, aka the Beauty and the Beast. And they slip into different costumes as the comedy require. And there mixing the ecclesiastical and the popular secular music of the renaissance and baroque era: the Italian origin frottola, canzonetta and madrigal, flamenco and medieval rhythms like tarantella. Plus hip-hop. It’s sometimes so much polyphonic as if there two different bands would play side by side. Exceedingly surreal.
Maybe the best Kythibong Records release ever:
Claire and Etienne were lovers. Claire got strict Catholic education, studied lyrical singing and works in a national choir, speaking fluent ancient Latin and collecting roadkilled frogs. Etienne is a ferocious self-taught musician. He started his musical career as a drummer of a Berber music band at the age of 15. While Claire joined a Palestine music group at 18. After various genres, styles, groups and collaborations they have founded Sieur et Dame in 2006.
I hope their little travelling circus to start eastward soon.
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