You Won't Go Through Pagans 50 Unscathed
Our record of the month is a 5-hour compilation dedicated to experimental occitan music.
The label Pagans, based in Pau, has released last month a monster of a compilation on Bandcamp: Pagans 50 brings together, as its name suggests, fifty tracks taken from each of the releases from the record label's catalog. In total: five hours of music, recorded between 2010 and 2024. Drawing inspiration mainly from Occitan culture, Pagans 50 invites you to discover the most experimental music the southern part of France has to offer.
Wait, what is Occitan again?
I already talked about the Occitan language a year ago because it’s becoming a small obsession of mine. Basically, French is not the only language that has existed in France. But because of the way the French nation was built there was no room in our storytelling for regional languages. Most of them are on their way to extinction. Some musicians link this to colonization within the French territory.
Occitan has been around for a while, more than a millennia. But because of the lack of common rules between its various sub-dialects against the heavy standardization of French, the use of Occitan is declining dangerously. At best, there is less than 800.000 people speakers in the world.
It’s important to note that when you are reading Occitania, I am not talking about the administrative region and decentralized entity of the French State but rather the linguistic territory of Occitania which extends from Gascony to Nice, from the Pyrenees to the middle of Auvergne.
Pagans was the home of Artús
Pagans defines itself as “an artisanal and almost non-profit record label” who was initially created to release records from Artús.
Also based in Pau in Béarn (a small cultural sub-region at the very South-West of metropolitan France), Artús is a cult band mixing Gascon influences with progressive rock inspired by French legends Magma. They are made of three brothers from the Baudoin family and a couple of friends/cousins: Thomas sings and plays the string tambourine, Romain plays the hurdy-gurdy and Matèu plays the violin. They favor long, evolving tracks integrating drones, harmonies, dissonant instruments and haunting Gascon songs. The compilation obviously gives them their fair share with five tracks, more than any other artist.
Artús broke up in 2022 but the Pagans label continues, led by their guitarist Nicolas Godin. Additionally, the production company Hart Brut has become a home for all their derivative outputs where the family members are still playing, most of which can also be heard on this compilation.
A small but necessary explanation about Gascony
The Duchy of Gascony [Gascogne in French] is a former province of the not-missed Kingdom of France. Here is a map from Wikipedia.
For reference, Gascony is where d’Artagnan, the young and candid protagonist of the Three Musketeers is supposed to come from. Henry IV, our “Good King” who effectively ended the religious wars by granting religious freedom to the protestants, was born there. In retaliation, he was assassinated by a Catholic zealot in 1610. Also from Gascony : me, as well.
New faces of Occitan music
Over the years, Pagans has opened its catalog to other bands from the larger South-West area in order to diversify their sound: the polyphonic duo Cocanha (currently, one of my favorite bands), the fiddlers of Bourrasque [trad: Squall], the rap/hurdy-gurdy combo of Pialuts, Super Parquet [trad: Super Floor] and their captivating ballroom songs, or the latest release: Tal Coal (the stage name of violinist Maud Herrera). With them, the compilation only gets better, allowing for more pop, more accessible music but also more female voices.
Geographically, Pagans 50 also ventures towards Marseille (De La Crau), Lyon (La Preyra), Brittany and mostly the Auvergne region with Sourdure (one of the most famous bands of the genre) the duo Poufs à Cordes or the choir San Salvador which I already talked about a year ago.
Despite the relative youth of the musicians involved, the compilation is nonetheless honoring two of their mentors: the Gascon singer and author Joan Francés Tisnèr and the great poet Pèire Boissiera, who passed away in 2022.
Hey, la Nòvia is here again!
Pagans is inherently linked with another collective making the same kind of music: La Nòvia, based in haute-Loire in the Auvergne mountains is also mixing traditional sounds and instruments with experimental ideas. One day I’ll talk about them more extensively. Last time, I’ve suggested to read the excellent Scene Report from Bandcamp editorial board about both collectives. The advice still stands, it’s a great text.
Some members of La Novia can obviously be found here and there but only two of their bands have released an album on Pagans: La Baracande where Basile Brémaud resurrects the Occitan repertoire with the musicians of Toad. And la Cleda, a united nations with musicians from different territories of Occitania.
The best French release of the year so far
The popular music of Occitania serves as raw material for the most daring sound experiments. Pagans 50 is extremely homogeneous but among the surprises, we can cite the joyful Tu as peut-être peur [trad: You’re maybe afraid] from The Seismic Zones directly inspired by Hey Jude or the furious Piu Piu from Klaustomi. The rare direct homages to traditional music - like the folkloric shuffling of Bourrasque or the tragic song from the duo D’en haut [trad: From the top] - are breaths of fresh air.
Listening to Pagans 50 is a challenge: more than ten pieces exceed eight minutes and the compilation culminates at almost 14 minutes with the monstrous collaboration between the jazz drummer Hamid Drake and Erwan Keravec on the bagpipes. The Keravec brothers are featured on another monumental track: Le Choc des Electrons Libres [trad: The Shock of Free Electrons], a supergroup where the musicians of Artús collide with the Bretons of Niou Bardophones for a cacophonous jam session.
With Pagans 50, you have the possibility for you to discover an adventurous scene, on the fringes of mainstream music in France. For a small amount of money, you can buy yourself a piece of history.
You can also read my review in French on Goûte Mes Disques.