Lo Còr de La Plana

For eleven years, in the La Plaine neighborhood of Marseille, Lo Còr de La Plana has reinvented southern vocal tradition, blending it with the archaic sounds of a violent and raw Mediterranean. Percussion and voice form the emblematic duo of this rudimentary and minimal ritual accompanied by essential elements that the body can still beat: hands, feet, or skin.
Manu Théron has brought together four singer-percussionists for this project: Benjamin Novarino-Giana, Sébastien Spessa, Denis Sampieri and Rodin Kaufmann.
Beyond local musical references (even when Marseille’s heritage provides support and the Occitan language serves as a perspective), the musical universe constructed by Lo Còr de la Plana enhances all influences, from Pierre Schaeffer to the Ramones, from Bartok to the Velvet Underground.
For them, the goal is not to interrogate memory through what immobilizes it, but in its turbulence, in the Dionysian obscenities it can awaken, even in its failures and the risk of death that lurks in each of its excesses. This incandescent memory is the group’s raw material from its formation, and if they manage to make it both universal and unique and share it with a wide audience, it’s because inside Lo Còr, as their Occitan name indicates, the heart beats first and foremost.
After performing at the world’s most important world music festivals, Lo Còr de la Plana released the new and extraordinary album of unreleased tracks, “Marcha,” in April 2012.