Jérémy Frérot a la Vie Qu'on Mène

Serge Lama ranks among the most traditionally minded French songwriters. His strong, powerful voice, combined to his very intense and theatrical stage persona, has often earned him comparisons to Jacques Brel. The title of a book he has written speaks for Lama's lyricist orientations: Sentiment, Sexe et Solitude (Feeling, Sex and Solitude). He had some hit singles during the late '60s and '70s, the most famous one being "Je Suis Malade," and had a popularity peak in the '80s with the success of his musical, Napoléon.

Founded in 1906, Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix des Bois (Little Singers of the Wooden Cross) are renowned as one of the world's most established children's choirs. Founded by Paul Berthier and Pierre Martin, two students on vacation at l'Abbeye de Tamie, the Paris-based traveling choir broke tradition with its lack of affiliation to a particular parish or cathedral. Directed by Father Fernand Maillet, they soon developed an international presence thanks to performances at the Vatican and an appearance in the 1945 film La Cage aux Rossignols, and continued to remain active throughout the 20th century, with singer/songwriter Matthieu Chédid, Les Prêtres' Charles Troesch, and Olympic rowing champion Adrien Hardy among some of their famous former members. By its centenary year, which was celebrated by a France2 show featuring duets with the likes of Tina Arena, Lara Fabian, and Nolwenn Leroy, the choir school had developed into a full-time educational institution, combining regular studies with a global touring schedule.

These albums aims to provide a selection of some of the most representative classic of world music, as well as a selection of recent successes, universalized in version "World". This denomination, we have baptized for the occasion as "La Musica De Los Dioses" (The Music of the Gods), provides a spectrum of influences, whose origins are in the most remote places on earth. Sounds, percussion and voices of the Amazon jungles, islands of Borneo and Indonesia or multiple regions of Africa converge here with influences from very different cultures and current rates.

The oeuvre of Johannes Ockeghem influenced a considerable number of musicians who were contemporaries with, or came immediately after, the Master of Tours. Many of these talented composers took one of his works as a model, thus bearing eloquent testimony to their admiration for him. All of them visited him and helped popularize his image as a benevolent father figure to this amazing caste of singers and composers. Ockeghem s death at a ripe old age in 1497 greatly affected the brilliant generation that was in the process of making the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and naturally led to the creation of some deeply moving music.

The vocal ensemble A Sei Voci is based in the French city of Sablé-sur-Sarthe and was founded in 1977. The name, naturally, is so given as the group uniformly consists of six regular member voices, although other singers and instrumentalists are added as each project they undertake may require. A Sei Voci was founded with the purpose of recovering vocal works from the Baroque and Renaissance periods that were not yet revived or otherwise known to the public.

The Mass by Machaut is the earliest complete setting of the Mass text that we have. It was composed for performance in a specific church (in which this recording is made) for a specific occasion and has performance connections to the composer and his family. The performance is excellent and the recording quite clear, especially the mass, using the acoustic of a large stone church.

Bernard Peiffer was a popular pianist on the French jazz scene throughout a good part of the 1950s. This compilation collects a series of sessions (including both solo and trio dates) recorded in 1952 and 1953. Peiffer's approach to the piano is obviously influenced by Erroll Garner to a certain extent, especially on standards like "Jeepers Creepers" and "Lady Be Good." But he's also a compelling bop pianist, offering an impressive performance of Charlie Parker's "Steeplechase." His inventive approach to "Caravan" (heard in two separate takes) incorporates a dramatic shift in the bassline, adding a bit of stride piano in spots…