Marion Cousin & Kaumwald

There are commitments whose delineations are only defined by a territory. The series initiated in 2016 by Marion Cousin prompts an exploration of the Iberian Peninsula through its enchanted traditions, and creates for to each region a singular collaboration, born from her desires, encounters and friendships. Marion‘s voice embarks us and sails away, leaves the islands of Minorca and Majorca, where the plowing and reaping songs mingled with sad epics and Gaspar Claus‘ cello, in “Jo estava que m’abrasava – Work songs from Minorca and Majorca” (LDFP / Le Saule, 2016), to take us with Kaumwald to the Estremadura, a remote region of Spain, documented in his time by Luis Buñuel, who was fascinated by its aridity, its harshness, the poor existence of its residents, the isolation of its villages. Together, they record “Tu rabo par’abanico – Romances de Extremadura” (LDFP / Le Saule, 2020). 

Kaumwald is founded by Ernest Bergez and Clement Vercelletto, who, together, also form two third of the trio Orgue Agnès. From there, if we dig a little, we can see appear a large family of musicians who like to break away from genres and create sounds with today’s instruments as if they had been found in antiques stores. Ernest is also Sourdure, a solo project unearthing French folk songs, with his violin, his voice, and a few machines making coarse sounds in ways only he knows the secret. 

The duo adorns the songs chosen by Marion with an organic electricity, floating through the letters, seeping in the syllables, and reveals the flawed groove of these ritornellos that seem to have never stopped repeating themselves. The trio emerging here offers eight titles, which were arranged in an old barn where almost-closed electrical circuits were set up. Beside the impregnation and transformation of the songs, for a rendering both strange and sharp, these electrical circuits also contributed to the rhythmic, harmonic and textural foundations for this successful attempt of transmission of texts and melodies borrowed from the collective memory, from the people, often rural, who like to tell stories and provide an expanded spectrum to our existences. 

LINE-UP:
Marion Cousin: voice, shruti-box, percussion
Ernest Bergez: electronics, violin, dotâr, percussion
Clément Vercelletto: electronics,  percussion, shruti-box