Band from Louvain-La-Neuve that tried to pleasantly mix French chanson and
Celtic folk at the end of the 1990's.
Songs
"Ca vous gêne"
47,8 sec. - 94 Kb.
song : Coïncidence
Jaar : 1997
"Joséphine"
1'02 sec. - 122 Kb.
song : Yves Barbieux, Sébastien et Guillaume Duthoit
Jaar : 1997
"Les odeurs"
1'20 sec. - 166 Kb.
song : Yves Barbieux, Sébastien et Guillaume Duthoit
Procuder: Nicolas Vandooren
Jaar : 1999
Record Co : Universal
The group was founded 'round & about 1995, by Yves Barbieux and the brothers
Duthoit (sons of a poet from Tournai). This treesome with an interest in French
pop met Laurent Jamart (a biofarmer from Jodoigne, which they later labelled "papa
folk"), who introduced them to traditional Celtic music in the tradition
of Malicorne or Tri Yann. During the next year, the tree came in contact - all
rather coïncidentally, hence the name "Coïncidence" - with
bass-playerLuc Evens, violinist Marc Docquir and bagpiper Jean-François
Geubel. Although all of these were students in their early 20's, hey all shared
a common interest in this traditional music. However, they weren't planning on
copying it, but mixing it with more contemporary music-form, first and foremost
with french chanson. The line-up of Coïncidence came to be bass, drums &
guitar, in combination with bagpipe, violin and flute.
In 1997 recorded and self-published (with a budget of 500.000 fr) the cd "Prières
d'hommes". Apart from the musical mix, the press noted the lyrics, which
were described by Guillaume to Le Soir as : "the lyrics resemble our music:
they are authentic. Very poetic, with lots of wordplay. And perhaps a tad hermetical",
and the very strange hats that they were all wearing on stage ("It's our
violinist who has brought these with him from a trip to Turkey. We don't wear
them on stage, but we thought it was amusing for the picture.").
The reactions to this debut Cd were certainly enthusiastic. La Wallonie for example
wrote: "The band «Coïncidence» is the key exemple of
the renewal of folk in Wallonia. The band ... makes a very handy synthesis between
chanson and the music that's called popular. The melodies are well-cared-for starting
from a guitar-bass-drums architectures, which is enriched with a multitude of
instruments such as the accordion, melodica, bagpipes, tin-whistle, la mandole.
The percussion ends up in very strange sounds and enigmatic sound effects. A song
such as «Ca vous gène» fits perfectly on the radio. There is
a freshness in their tone, and a quality of sound passe. Tri Yann or other Malicorne
don't have to worry that their heritage isn't looked after ... «Coïncidence»,
a debut album that surprises". They sell 3000 copies of it, mainly after
gigs.
With "Prières d'hommes" under the arm, the band succeeded
in getting gigs from Canada to France and Belgium (also in Flanders, where the
group played twice at "Winterfolk" in the Ancienne Belgique). After
the tour, Marc Docquir and Guillaume Duthoit leave the band though. Fabrice Dumont
(violin) comes into it.
In 1999 they record a second CD, named "Pantins Pirates" genaamd,
with Nicolas Vandooren. For this CD, the band signed a deal with Universal Music.
Still, Coïncidence weren't very interested in riding the wave of the commercially
renewed interest for Celtic folk (as witnessed by the success of Manau & co).
Seb about this : "I don't like it too much when this music with nothing
but marketing objectives. The result can be quite efficient ... but it has a really
perverse ring to it. There was this record company who wanted to produce our next
album. Their demands, probably inspired by the " phénomène
celtique"? Sampling the bagpipes, bringing in electric guitars and choirs...
Naturally, we refused". They did release a single to promote the album,
the poetic "Les Odeurs".
On"Pantins Pirates" the band went much further in discovering the possibilities
of working in the studio, rather than laying their live-sound on tape as was the
case with the first album. That's why they brought in other musicians in the mix,
such as a children's choir, a violin-quartet, a saxophone player and the girls
from Laïs. At the CD-presentation in October '99,
there was also a surprise gig of these - especially in Flanders - immensely popular
folk band.
Yves Barbieux already indicated that he was dreaming of a project in which
folk would be mixed with more contemporary, urban, music (inspired by Wilfried
Brits of Universal Music). THis would result in Urban
Trad. Somewhere during the year 2000, it was decided that Urban Trad had
a better future than Coïncidence, so this band was disbanded.
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