KALLISTEA

I Muvrini

It is the headlight group of the Corsican music today. In Corsican language, U Muvrunu (I Muvrini in the singular) indicates a moufflon which lives in the mountains of the island.  Ambassador of the Corsican culture, I Muvrini defends the traditions of Corsica. Mixing the current sounds with the ancestral tradition of the polyphonies, they form integral part of the current of the world music.

I Muvrini was formed at the end of the Seventies around the brothers Bernardini, Jean François and Alain. Their Ghjuliu father, who recorded in the family house, they inherited science the traditional polyphony, before opening with the folk song or the world-music. With him they recorded their two first 45 turns. Their first album “I Muvrini… Ti ringrazianu” left into 79, pays homage to this father missing in 1977.  

As of their second album, “Anu da vulta” (They will return), which refers to the political prisoners of the end of the Seventies, they mingle the traditional music with their own compositions. The two albums which follow are carried out with the “scola aperta” (the open school). These schools of song, create by the group, are intended to learn to the children the Corsican culture by the song and the music. 

The album “E camped which” (To live here), which leaves in 1981, widens the public of the group, since it appears with the blossoming of the free radios which will hasten widely to diffuse their titles.  

Very listened in Corsica, the group does not hesitate to give an opinion in the local political life, and drains immense crowd at the time of their concerts which are true events on the island. 

In 1984, the album “Lacrime leaves”. This essential album in their career joins together all it on what they had already worked and at the same time poses the bases of their future work.  

With difficulty, the group creates its own structure of production and diffusion (AGFB), which is today the first distributor of the island. In 1985, the group is invited in Spring of Bourges, then in Paris with the Theatre of the City then with Bobino. Their notoriety exceeds Corsica and their polyphonies allure the many public ones through Europe.

It is in Paris that they record “EP the amore di t-piece” which leaves into 88. The album is sold with more than 300.000 specimens.

Then “Quorum”, recorded in Toulouse in 1989, is a safety with the public which accompanies them for a long time. A symbiosis which their first recording in public “in core underlines”.

“A voce rivolta” (A kill-head) mark the opening to new musical colors. After a series in concerts in Naples and Florence, in April 92, under their own production, they invest the Zenith, one of the largest Parisian rooms. 

Whereas they had already taken part in an album of Jacques Dutronc in 1990 on “Corsica”, Michel Fugain invites them in 1992 to sing with him. Then it will be Veronique Sanson in 1995 at the time of a concert in Francofolies of the La Rochelle.  

In 1993, I Muvrini signs at Island and leaves in July their twelfth album “Noi” which joins together twelve original compositions and a traditional song has capella, “Lode”. The group negotiates with their label a distribution in the whole world but, been exceptional, the weather keeps the distribution on Corsica.  

Summer 93 is reserved for a great round through Corsica which gathers 80.000 people is Corsican on three. After that, the group plays two evenings of following the Zenith in Paris. The album memory in these two concerts leaves in 1994.

In 1995, the album “Curagiu” is gold Disque. It will be followed of a round and an concert-event to Bercy on January 27,1996 from which an album will be drawn live. On December 4,96, the group celebrates the one year end triumphal in Olympia, then two months later, they obtain the Victoire of the Music of the best album of traditional music. 

In May 98, it is on a new label, EMI, that the 13th album of the group appears, “Leia” (links). Recorded partly in London, the album contains a duet anglo-Corsican with the Sting singer (“Fields off Gold”). On the scene of Bercy on June 5 and 6,98, I Muvrini prepares like every year their ritual round of summer in Corsica.

The group finds the ex-singer of the Police group for a new duet, “Ground of Oru”. The title does not leave that in the form of new in their compilation “A Strada” which appears at spring 2000. This CD, which summarizes 13 albums, contains also a version with the Corsican accents of “Amsterdam” of Jacques Brel.

Enter, 99 and 2001, the group continues to turn actively. One sees them on the festivals (Spa, July 99), in large Parisian rooms (Olympia 99, Zenith, June 23,99 or Bercy, December 14,2000), and the participations in various events related to the Corsican culture (polyphonic Mass in the church St Jean and Stephan of Tiny in Brussels, January 23,2000). Finally like Cheb Mami, their duet with Sting launched on the international market. They thus give a North-American round of eight dates in July 2001 followed by some dates on the French festivals before the ritual Corsican round of August.

A German round takes place with the autumn 2001. On September 13, the group sings with the American church of Paris in homage to the victims of the September 11. But their new “Umani”, announced with the autumn 2001, should finally leave only on August 20,2002.

On May 19,2002, they take part in a concert of support for the profit of the festival of Poupet in the Vendée which knows threats of disappearance for causes of sound harmful effects.

Whereas the group is always more or less on the roads, with a stopover in particular with the Festival of jazz in Nice in July and the ritual round in Corsica of August, the album “Umani” (Human) is put on the market at the end of August. Taken along by the simple heading “Jalalabad” with the participation of the rappor MC Solaar and who evokes the fate of the Afghan women, the album is resolutely turned towards other cultures. One can thus hear on “a sognu EP campà” the Swiss singer Stephan Eicher or Josefina Fernandes on the title “Vogliu” which mixes in a very interesting way the voice and the guitar flamenca, with the Corsican polyphony. The small pocket of the album is signed Antoni Tapies, the Catalan painter who offers there to the Corsican group, an original work. Parallel to the output of the album, Jean-François Bernardini makes appear a book “Umani” (Editions of the Threshold) which gathers poems, texts of songs and reflexion on its island.

*

After more than 20 years of career, I Muvrini continues to fight in favour of pacified and fraternal Corsica. By adapting the ancestral tradition of the polyphony to the current sounds, they knew to make known and to make appreciate their culture and their language.

Article >RFI Music

to >Voir their discography
www.muvrini.com