Le Roseau 
La Bergère : Ouvarosa (F,2003)****'
First of all, Sylvie Berger for me has the sort of rich colours and emotionally strong and gifted folk voices and is the sort of song interpreters that I like best in a folk context. It a sort of uniqueness I already knew to some degree from Malicorne. Also here a couple of vocal harmonies can find comparison. But Sylvie’s voice is also sweeter than that, delicate and sophisticated, something which the acoustic but also beautiful slide guitar arrangements from Gabriel Yacoub (former Malicorne) is able to confirm the strength. Other arrangements include diatonic accordion, a folk brass arrangement by Frédéric Paris and Willy Soulette, second string pickings by mandola and mandoline by Sylvie, besides the addition of a couple of other touches, from which I must also mention the percussive ear for sounds on “Petits cailloux”. The music is based upon traditional folk and expresses poetry, -as musical song poetry-, using lyrics from Victor Hugo, Paul Fort, Francis Carco, Gaston Couté and also Gabriel Yacoub, all which are presented with a photograph of the author with each song and its context (in French). A more than perfect album! It is these sort of superior albums which makes collecting folk, also from French origin, worth the continuing support/collecting. Also the French press gave it deserved rave reviews.
PS. The title of the album signifies “Where is Rose going ?”
Sylvie Bergére also sang on Ambrozijn (one of these albums is reviewed here).
Le Roseau La Bergère : Fi De L'Eau (F,2006)****
Many more individual contributors are invited for this second album, this time creating a even more warm sound, which is either more passionate in its full sound or slightly melancholic compared to the slightly more delicate début. La Bergere’s core consists now of a trio with Sylvie Berger on vocals, Julie Biget on guitar, bouzouki, mandoline, percussion, vocals and Emmanuel Pariselle, and with Gabriel Yacoub within close range of being another member. The new album is a song album like a diary of thoughts involved with the looking back on the children’s times, sometimes with sadness on what is lost and gone and other fitting songs, inspired from different sources.
