Medieval Mountain Music (Satyre Cornu - Stille Volk)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Satyre Cornu - Stille Volk
Date:	09/04/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Eerie and jolly at the same time

Disadvantages: Got to like medieval music to get into it

Satyre Cornu is the 2001 album by the French band Stille Volk a band that I got to be aware of through their musical connections with folk metal, initially I thought they were a German group with the name Stille Volk but this turned out to be Dutch for "The Silent People" and has little to do with the bands origins.

This band come out of the misty pyrenees and sing in French, Occitan and Catalan whilst playing a relatively simple yet effective style of medieval folk music, with just the two band members- the flute and bagpipes seem to be the favoured instruments along with some hypnotic and slightly eerie pagan singing. The band don't limit themselves to this though with each track using various interests and the hurdy gurdy getting the run-out it deserves.

Topics of tracks - as is common for this genre tend to be about nature and magic. Tracks such as "La Reveil de Pan" have a pretty haunted monastery like sound to them but at the same time contain a great deal of joy with excellent violin and flute playing. The flute is an instrument that I'm not really taken with but it's used sparingly and effectively in most cases by this band. I think this is one of my favourite tracks on the album, there are so many kinds of vocals on it - ranging from the dark hypnotic chanting through to quirky throaty sounds that you can hear at the latter part.

The paces of the tracks are quite different on each track and the changing of languages throughout the album, keep life in a genre of music which can easily become stale when there's only 2 musicians. It's fairly impressive but due to the same style throughout, it's not really an album I listen or will listen to much. If you are a big medieval music fan though, it would be on the contrary. You should consider this if you are thinking about buying it.

1 Le Satyre Cornu (2:50)
2 Rassa Tan Creis (5:08)
3 Pan Domna Poc (4:43)
4 Les Crapauds (4:03)
5 Le Réveil De Pan (4:37)
6 Marche Nocturne (2:08)
7 La Vengeance De Pan (4:20)
8 Quan L'Herba Fresca (4:18)
9 Invocation À Pan (3:18)
10 Adoumestica Una Terro (6:07)
11 Le Satyre Cornu 2 (3:21)

Summary: Pretty talented folks