BOING BOING ZOOM ZOOM (Canada)

Big Branch Born, Boing Boing Zoom Zoom Brings Bountiful Bal Zeal: Zippy Bourrées, Zig Zaggy ‘Zurkas, Big Boisterous Bops, By Breathing Zestfully.

“Southern Ontario's premier Jaw Harp, Harmonica duo” - Boing Boing Zoom Zoom

ÇUBRANA (France)

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Un duo roots qui sans détour se délecte de retrouver dans les airs traditionnels à danser d’Occitanie leur simplicité et leur groove intrinsèque. Adieu les arrangements bon chic bon genre, adieu le désir inavoué de ressembler aux musiques actuelles, adieu les mille et uns détours, bonjour la fête et le bal. Vous voilà ainsi balancés dans un bal engagé aux rythmiques effrénées et aux modes majeurs réjouissants. Les airs s’enchaînent et se déchaînent sur la piste emportant vos pieds sur leur passage. De quoi faire danser en couple, en groupe ou même seuls des êtres à l’envie pressante de remuer leur corps.

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A roots duo who clearly delight in finding their simplicity and intrinsic groove in the traditional dance tunes of Occitania. Goodbye to the good-natured chic arrangements, goodbye to the unconfessed desire to resemble current music, goodbye to the thousand and one detours, hello to the party and the ball. You are thus thrown into an engaged ball with frantic rhythms and delightful major modes. The tunes come together and unleash themselves on the track, carrying your feet in their wake. Enough to make people dance as a couple, in a group or even alone, with a pressing desire to move their bodies.

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Mickaël Vidal: accordion, vocals

Victor Dreyfus: violin

DIRTY CAPS' (France)

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Dirty Caps’, c’est l’histoire de trois individus qui ont mis tout leur amour et tout leur savoir-faire en commun pour nous offrir le meilleur de leurs terroirs, de la Bigorre au Quercy en passant par les Landes. Dirty Caps’, c’est d’abord une aventure humaine au service d’une passion commune : la musique, mais c’est aussi l’expression d’un territoire aux mille et un paysages. Dirty Caps’, c’est un esprit de liberté qui n’a de cesse de virevolter tel un danseur de bourrée ou de branle. Dirty Caps’, c’est un bal qui reflète une tradition vivante, sans cesse enrichie par l’innovation au service de la qualité et de la typicité du son.

Dirty Caps’ is the story of three individuals who put all their love and all their know-how in common to offer us the best of their terroirs, from Bigorre to Quercy via Landes. Dirty Caps’ is first and foremost a human adventure in the service of a common passion: music, but it is also the expression of a territory with a thousand and one landscapes. Dirty Caps’ is a spirit of freedom that never ceases to twirl like a bourrée or branle dancer. Dirty Caps’ is a bal that reflects a living tradition, constantly enriched by innovation in the service of the quality and typicality of the sound.

ELISE BOEUR & ADAM IREDALE-GRAY (Canada)

eliseandadam.ca

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Fiddler Elise Boeur draws from the wells of Norwegian and Swedish fiddle music, melds in fistfuls of arcane influences, and emerges with a multi-faceted sound grounded in Nordic traditions. Adam Iredale-Gray is a versatile guitarist with deep roots in Irish traditional music and a commitment to innovation. They each spent years touring as collaborators with diverse projects, and as members of their prog-trad quintet Aerialists, and all along they were playing fiddle tunes at sessions, folk dances, and afterparties. With this duo project, you’re invited into these social music afterhours; a celebration of the experience of sharing fiddle traditions the way they’ve been shared for centuries, the tune recreating itself anew with each repetition as folks sit knee to knee and play.

MEDUSA (Canada)

medusaquartet.com
 

Medusa is Georgia Hathaway, Lea Kirstein, Marta Sołek, and Saskia Tomkins. For these four seasoned string players, whose collective experience as side players in successful bands spans decades, Medusa is a refuge for natural creation. Their immediate and electrifying connection is transmuted through a common string language, a love of enigmatic and obscure folk fiddles, and their personal stories of navigating society’s liminal spaces. Instead of a snake-haired Gorgon, they see Medusa as a symbol of vision, power, and inclusivity, and a source of inspiration for anyone who has been denied their true self.

VINTA (CANADA)

vintamusic.com

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Vinta is Nathan Smith, Emilyn Stam, John David Williams, and Robert Alan Mackie, four brilliant performers and close friends at the cutting edge of European traditional music in Canada. Nearly a decade of these four musicians hanging out at fiddle jams around Toronto has culminated in this quartet, bringing new intensity to old tunes, and growing new tunes from old sources. A band of multi-instrumentalists and genuine scholars, Vinta is making music that is powerful, profound, and fiercely danceable.

“completely sympathetic arrangements and tuned in, dynamic ensemble playing; always on the same page and always finding the right unanimous groove.” -James Stephens, Gatineau Hills Fiddle Festival