Matmatah Fiere Allure

Featuring their modern take on the traditional Breton genre known as Kan ha Diskan, La Ouache is the debut album from French quartet Matmatah. Influenced by Alan Stivell's Again LP, their 1998 debut, which combines Celtic rock with Middle Eastern folk, was produced by Claude Chamboissier and features the hit singles "Lambe an Dro" and "Les Moutons" alongside the rousing instrumental closer "Ribette's" and the hard-hitting "Troglodyte."

Jean-François Dandrieu was born in August or September 1682 on rue Saint-Louis, Île de la Cité, Paris. He was the eldest of at least four children and showed such musical precocity that it is reported he played the harpsichord for Louis XIV and his court at the age of five. It can be assumed that his reputation led to great demand for his services as a performer, since he travelled outside Paris as a musician on several occasions. He was not the first musical Dandrieu: his uncle, Pierre, trained as a priest and organist in Angers. It is possible that it was he who organised Jean-François’s studies with the harpsichordist and composer Jean-Baptiste Moreau, a fellow Angevin and near contemporary.

Marin Marais published his last collection in 1725, eight years after the appearance of his Quatrième Livre de Pièces de Viole . He was no longer playing in the Chambre du Roi by that time and had moved to a house in the Faubourg Saint-Marceau where he cultivated plants and flowers in his garden. He continued, however, to give lessons to people who wanted to improve their viol playing. The Cinquième Livre de Pièces de Viole reflects this image of a peaceful life; today we regard it as the final testament of a musician who was looking back upon his past years as their undisputed master — and which he remains today.