Compilation tracks:

1. Daybreak
2. Little galiot
3. Nikana / Plain Days
4. Diguedin
5. The wind will carry us
6. Frank You
7. Wo
8. The winemaker
9. To hell with lawyers
10. The Wagon
11. The Little Monk
12. The drowned gallant (Yes for the Right)
13. Hold Up
14. In Jail Now
15. The big jigger
16. The neck of my bottle

Reliable and faithful feet like a metronome. A vocal precision of hell (they are the charcoal burners, after all!). Les Charbonniers de l'enfer have gleaned their essentials to celebrate 25 years of traditional a cappella music. It gives 25 years of great darkness, a worthy retrospective that has nothing very dark for Michel Faubert , André Marchand , Michel Bordeleau , Normand Miron and the late Jean-Claude Mirandette . Jigs, laments, podorythmy, harmonies, archaic liaisons, irregular rhythms, bonhomie, humor and a few ribald remarks: it's all there.

The music of Les Charbonniers de l'enfer is far from sinning by excess of simplicity, or by arrangements that have aged badly. On the contrary, 25 years of great darkness is rather an opportunity to rediscover harmonies executed with finesse, delivered with a visceral, true, instinctive energy. Petite galiote and La vignelon are good examples. The use of pedals (a continuous or repeated note at the bottom of the harmony) gives a richness to the arrangements. The splendid opening of To the Devil the Lawyers (which dates back to 2005), filled with surprising harmonic tensions, is just as convincing as an example of richness. Nikana 's pairing with Daniel Lavoie 's planing Jours deplaine (an arrangement dating from 2011) will give goosebumps to fans of vocal harmonies. As for the choice to have deposited, the same year, The wind will carry us , of Black Desire , on a jig, it always astonishes as much.

Let's go back to the very beginning of the group's discography to mention the unison, demanding to succeed and worthy of mention, in the interpretation of Le Galant noyé (Yes for the right) . This 2005 arrangement transports us to the solemn universe of a romantic tragedy typical of the folk repertoire. We even think we can guess in the melancholy treatment a hint of the influence of Gregorian vespers.

To contrast and prove that they are still the page, Les Charbonniers also dared to remix! The neck of my bottle has received the electro-pop treatment, up to date, which may please the most daring, but which risks curling the ears of purists!

– Nathan LeLièvre (ICI Music)