To celebrate his tenth anniversary, the Louisbourg Choir—based in a very small village in New-Brunswick, a surprising quality for such a remote location!—offers a musical program as original as it is uncommon, composed of Acadian folkloric chants and polyphonic songs from the Renaissance. For your information, Acadia is an unofficial region in North America stretching, without any precise boundary, from New-Brunswick to some parts of the Quebec province and of New-Scotland: so this is more a community of historical roots. The album covers two musical territories: Acadian folkloric melodies, presented here in a new light, by the addition of a rich vocal harmonization, flavored with ancient instrumentality, and imbued with finesse and subtlety more generally associated with Art music. As for the fourteen polyphonic songs that end the album, they are the work of Jacotin (active from 1516 to 1556), one of the most mysterious musicians from the Renaissance. Skillfully built, often even on older monodies, these songs, sometimes courtly, sometimes salacious or rustic, reveal a most gifted composer following the steps of Josquin Desprez and Jean Mouton. First in the service of Pope Leo X in Rome, as “private cantor” of the Sistine Chapel, Jacotin pursues and finishes his career in the French court, under the reigns of Francis I and Henry II, among the “ordinary cantors and canons of the Music-Chapel”. Held in high esteem, notably by François Rabelais and poet Jehan Du Four, Jacotin’s works, as those from several other “small masters” of his era, have today unjustly fallen into oblivion. This omission has thus been corrected, and with great mastery, by the Louisbourg Choir. © SM/Qobuz