TERRES FROIDES 

A territory with ill-defined boundaries, the Terres Froides are located in the Dauphiné region. Somewhere between the northern foothills of the Chartreuse, the Rhône loop and the Viennese countryside. Its borders vary from one person to the next, and no one agrees: the Terres Froides are always over there, never totally here.

A territory fantasized as much by its coldness as by its geographical vagueness, this uncertainty gives it an “elsewhere” status that is both mysterious and conducive to legend. A closer look reveals that this narrative capital is very much in evidence. Charles Joisten’s extraordinary collection bears witness to this.

“Our artistic urge will be to survey it, to immerse ourselves in its imaginary and real traces, to discover fragments of its narrative. We are not folklorists, and have no intention of reviving a world of yesterday. Our approach as musicians will be more of an investigation, to see what has been passed down, to identify its remnants and give a contemporary interpretation: our artistic and musical eye.”

It could be the revival of a mazurka that used to be played in the countryside, the enduring beliefs in fantastic animals, the magical phenomena that are still with us today, the legend of a village, the patois words that still peppered our language, a children’s rhyme or other historical legends that cement the imagination.

For us, this project is also a way of getting closer to the traditional music of our region. We’re improvisers, jazzmen in the broadest sense of the term, a bit of citizens of the world, and somewhat orphans of local music.

Traditional music, which has been lost here in the Dauphiné by force of circumstance, represents for us a real attraction, a breeding ground for research.