Pòble mon Pòble' / 'Faguem Ribòta' Occitanian culture is one of the more unknown and forgotten European cultures. Occitania is a cultural region that stretches from Southern France to Northern Italy. Occitan is not a single language, but a collection of dialects, about 10 million people understand today one of these dialects. La Talvera is one of the old established Occitanian folk bands, being already since more than 20 years in the business. The band sounds as if it stays overall close to the tradition, while at the same time further developing the folk music culture. The band brings together four Occitan musicians, joined on the latest album by an Algerian. Daniel Loddo, the founder of the band, writes a large number of songs for La Talvera, inspired by traditional themes. He plays also a large range of instruments, including accordeon as well as a range of typical instruments from Southern France, such as local bagpipes, oboe and a reed-flute. The other distinctive element of La Talvera is the strong and intensive, slightly shrill singing of Céline Ricard (even though Daniel also sings). Other central instruments are clarinet, tambourine, precussion, mandola and jews harp. 'Pòble mon Pòble' is the more modern and innovative album of these two. It includes modern percussion, even some samples, and some of the songs have a much more contemporary feeling to them. The title track, for example, is more of a rap. The album is full of experimenting and playing about with the music - in one number some baby crying, in another one a little bit of electric guitar, or a bit of a phone conversation. The album is fun and has been created with a good sense of humour, it is full of little surprises. The music takes in influences from all over the Mediterranean Europe and Northern Africa. Overall, however, also this album stays true to the local Occitan tradition, the traditional instruments are usually in the centre of the music. The accordion is quite often central to the sound of this album. Compared to 'Pòble mon Pòble', 'Faguem Ribòta' sounds very harmless. Even though also on this album, many songs are composed by Daniel Loddo, the feeling of the album is much more traditional. Here, La Talvera sounds much more like a lively group performing on village fete in Occitania, even though this album shows a good sense of humour and improvisation as well. Both albums show a lively band with a distinctive sound, and with many ideas how to liven up the music, have fun, entertain. Both albums are also extremely long, well over an hour - some bands would have made 4 CDs of this amount of material! My personal favourite of the two albums is the latest, 'Pòble mon Pòble', with its modern arrangements - for my taste, this is much more of a CD to listen to at home, while 'Faguem Ribòta' feature more the kind of music which is best enjoyed in live, in the authentic surroundings of a Southern French village, on CD it sounds at times a bit too shrill to my liking. Both albums are lively and fun, both albums are full of sunshine, summer and joie de vivre. (FOLKWORLD, Michael Moll)