Time stands still for Lo’Jo — pain of longing and sweet strains of a je ne sais quoi, strangely ancient melody gather like lazy cumulus clouds over African-gypsy rhythms — this French group from Angers brings Europe and the vast continent to its south together in a seductive dance, a musical trance. As the thickly sensual lead voice of Denis Péan delivers the lyrics — mostly his own poetry — the specter of Arthur Rimbaud, France’s 19th century bad-boy poet, rises above these wild rivers and savannas of language: parce que les mots sont fragiles à l’embrasure des lèvres (“because words are fragile at the opening of the lips”). Burning powders of desire, pelvic undulations, threads of accordion enchantment spun around violins and hand claps, the high backup voices of sisters Nadin and Yasmina Nid El Mourid: They all come together in a communal chanting celebration of bohemian crystal (as in the title of their latest CD for World Village, Bohême de Cristal). Cosmopolitan is too cold a word for the mysterious, borderless beauty of this ensemble.
Lo’Jo performs Saturday as part of the Viva La World French Embassy Tour, from 4 to 8:15 p.m., on the Embassy Stage at Chene Park in downtown Detroit (at Atwater and Chene, on the Detroit River). The official concert schedule can be found at www.concertofcolors.org.
Be sure to check out the rest of MT's special features in celebration of the Concert of Colors: