Six powerful, united, earthy, almost shamanic voices with a deep percussion accompaniment producing unforgettable hypnotic folk. Meet San Salvador, a young French group that sings in the Occitan dialect and gets people dancing at Festivals all over the world. In their captivating debut album La Grande Folie, which just won “Best World Music Album 2021” in the French “Victoires” awards, the sextet impresses with its mastery of harmonies, exuding emotion and modernity.
They have always known each other and have been singing together since childhood. So, at the same time as they learned to sing, harmonise and tone their voices according to the heritage of their region in the Massif Central, the young people who would later form San Salvador learned a certain freedom. They went through rock and punk, mixing brass instruments with their voices, before returning six years ago to an a cappella format reinforced by two bass toms and a tambourine.
Their polyphony is as rooted as it is creative, as “traditional” as it is resolutely contemporary. We don’t know if the effect they produce is in the same family as John Coltrane’s modal jazz, the hypnosis of hard tech or the total immersion of My Bloody Valentine but, irresistibly, we follow them into a trance. The listener feels carried away to an elsewhere in time that, curiously enough, is as familiar as it is exotic.
« There’s something visceral about hearing music being performed live with other people around you. For me, San Salvador perfectly encapsulate this feeling. »
THE GUARDIAN (UK)
« A glowing testament to the current French folk revival. »
SONGLINES (UK)
« Hectic, headlong vocal tapestries. »
FINANCIAL TIMES (UK)
« There is a very nice balance in San Salvador’s approach – between unbridled freedom and a certain tension. »
FRANCE INTER (FR)
« The tribal music of the French band San Salvador rises in a long crescendo
and then explodes with fury. »
LIBERATION (FR)
« They invent with new compositions the folklore of the future: both rooted and terribly alive. »
TELERAMA (FR)
« An ensemble of voices and percussion with enchanting energy and almost shamanic power. »
FRANCE INFO CULTURE (FR)
« It’s raw, it’s beautiful, it’s delivered from the depths of their souls. It makes you shiver with emotion. »
TOUTE LA CULTURE (FR)
« All the tracks on La Grande Folie have a drive, bringing out the pumping energy of tribal trance, techno, math- and punk-rock. »
FESTIVAL INFO (NL)
« Clever and extremely varied vocal arrangements, infectious enthusiasm and at times exciting fireworks on drums and hand clapping. »
MIXED WORLD MUSIC (NL)
« They produce an exciting, almost hypnotic folk. The ensemble demonstrates a mastery of complex harmonies..»
CONCERTO (DE)
« Complexly interwoven voices and rhythms, trance-like grooves and captivating percussions make for an exciting pleasurable listening experience. »
BREMEN ZWEI (DE)
« Powerfully set voices, solo, as a choir or gladly also offset as a conan. »
OHRENSCHMAUCH (DE)
« There are hypnotic voices with San Salvador from the Massif central in France. »
MDR KULTUR (DE)
« That is so grandiosely densely set that drums become melody and voices become rhythm. »
JAZZ THING (DE)
« San Salvador made a fascinating album. »
HEAVEN MUSIC MAGAZINE (NL)
Contacts:
BOOKING : LOST IN TRADITIONS
booking@lostintraditions.com
MDC : MAGGIE DOHERTY
maggie.doherty@music-mdc.com
+331 42 01 95 36
