Preview

Okay, they're a folk band - but a folk band like no other! This dynamic young six-man French-Canadian outfit were the sensational highlight of our 2001 Festival, and there were many who witnessed their dazzling show who agree with us at Cambria Arts HQ that they are literally one of the best live bands we've seen, EVER, regardless of genre - we promise you that's no idle claim. So many of you begged us to get them back, and after 2 years of persistence on our part, they're squeezing Tregaron into their non-stop international tour schedule.

La Volee d'Castors (means 'the flock of beavers'!) take traditional Quebecoise material and present it in a fiery, energetic, and uplifting form; instrumentation is both electric and acoustic - violins, guitars, accordions, mandolin, banjo, bass, keyboards, and percussion, underpinned by astonishing step-dancing - and they exploit their multiple skills by exchanging instruments on stage with bewildering speed. Not only that, all band members sing: their six-part harmony attack, like all aspects of their performance, is guaranteed to knock you off your feet.

Since their 2001 Tregaron visit, the multi-award-winning VDC have turned full-time professional, and tour constantly world-wide. They tore apart both Sidmouth and Cambridge Folk Festivals in 2002. Expect an evening of vibrant and thrilling music that will have you dancing like a dervish, and convince you once and for all that folk music can be REALLY exciting! Miss them at your peril - they're something very special.

'... inimitable joie-de-vivre ... a maelstrom of Acadian/Celtic tunes and red-blooded ballads.' - Glasgow Sunday Herald

'... freaky French folk from the 'flying beavers' ... earned a standing ovation.' - Edmonton Folk Festival

Review

Help! I've run out of superlatives. Even Roget's Thesaurus contains few words that can convey the joyous impact of The Flock of Beavers, whose eagerly-awaited return to the Talbot completely vindicated our extravagant promo claim that they're 'one of the best live bands ... ever'. Two years on down the line, and now full-time professional, their act is a finely-honed show (but never a cabaret), in which every second of the vibrant two-hour performance is packed with musical and visual interest, every move and interaction apparently choreographed yet spontaneous. The band's six members, each of them a ludicrously gifted musician, bond as a high-energy team, a whole that so far exceeds the sum of its parts that there surely wasn't a single soul among the 200-odd audience that wasn't captivated, swept along ... infectious, that's the word. The dance-floor, indeed the floor generally, saw record crowds of instant Beaver converts, all powerless to resist the urge to oscillate, vibrate, undulate, librate, wave, rock, swing, sway, pulsate, wag, waggle, wiggle, wobble, shoogle, nod, bob, wamble, wabble, waddle, even dangle and swag (thanks, Monsieur Roget), as VDC cast their irresistible spell.

But hey (as President Blair would say), this is still folk music! The band clearly love and revere the Quebecoise roots of their songs: the call-and-response patterns and unison or multiple-harmony choruses are a stirring and distinctive feature of numbers like 'Revenez donc toutes' and 'Belle Rose', while others effortlessly segue into flat-out reels that switch metre or time signature with dazzling rapidity. Seated stage-left, front, the stupendous Frederic Bourgeois is surely the Ginger Baker of 'podorythmie' (step-dancing) exponents; he and Rej Brunet on bass constitute a rhythm section that swings with jazz-rock intensity when required. Frederic also shares accordeon duties with Martin Mallhot (who's also got plenty of bodhran and percussion stuff to get on with), while Sebastien Parent's virtuosic guitar work takes forays into melodic territory that often suggest warmer, Eastern climes. The impish Matthieu Lacas's violin pours out streams of melody like birdsong as he bobs and weaves among his constantly mobile colleagues, while recent recruit, mandolinist Steve Boulay, takes the lion's share of lead vocal duties. But nothing prepares you for the sheer joy and energy which these lads bring to their chosen music, and we all left the Talbot with fixed grins and a sense of enrichment from the uplifting VDC experience. Will we have 'em back again? Do bears sh*t in the woods?

On the general topic of enriched experiences, this was the first gig at which we, rather tentatively, requested the smokers among you to refrain during the performance. It's abundantly clear from the substantial number of questionnaires so far returned that, at a rough guess, 95% of our punters, smokers included, prefer a relatively smoke-free environment, and we're delighted that all it took was a discreet notice above the door and a few words from the stage to achieve a massive improvement in air quality in the room. We're enormously grateful for everyone's cooperation. We have no intention to impose and police a total ban - but please consider this 'request to refrain' strategy in place at all gigs from now on. We couldn't have picked a more inspiring night to initiate it.