Trip hop - Montreux Jazz Café

Born of the mutual affinity for music between Valérie Fellay and her drum-beating brother Christophe, Hirsute appeared on stage Wednesday evening at the Montreux Jazz Café. Once again, talent coordinator Nunzia Barral exhibited her nose for talent as the Valaisan group was greeted with most satisfying appreciation by the audience. But such success isn’t new to Hirsute – the band has already produced a CD “Yoyo” and taken part in the Printemps de Bourges Festival.
The svelte fragility of the singer contrasts well with the magnificent strength of her voice. Talent must run in the family as. Other brother Patrick, is also the drummer with the well know group Glen of Guinness. Singing almost entirely in English, the four members of Hirsute take their audience on an almost hypnotic musical voyage, a voyage leaving them sated and replete. Hirsute ! Like Wow.

Découvertes du Printemps de Bourges

One can’t really accuse the Swiss group Hirsute of waving a francophone flag as most of the repertoire (but for one little French ditty which could just as well have been left out) is in English. Nonetheless, the raw talent simply surprises and then seduces regardless of the language sung. The sexy but nice look and the chopsticks in her red mane of hair provide a nice frame for the powerful voice belied by her petite stature which behind her, the three musicians provide a melodic and acoustically pleasing background for her voice.

Very new age ( Björk, Fionna Apple) the music of Hirsute is equally seductive, due not in small part to the voice of Valérie Fellay. Her personality and naturalness on stage lend a haunting quality to the songs – if you’re looking for bouncy joyfulness, you won’t find it here. Rather the lyrics tend to be melancholic with slow, recurrent rhythms, insistent in their simplicity. Its’ a unique style – an atmosphere, really, which bulls you to a place of sleepy dreaminess on their recently released first CD “Yoyo”. This summer Hirsute “did” the Paléo and this week-end they’ll be appearing in Fribourg.