"Terra Incognita" was released in 1986 two years after Les Musiciens de la Vallée des Lacs in which Christophe Toussaint took part. This time, Toussaint delivers an album of all original material dedicated to the épinette des Vosges, his favorite instrument (both for music and lutherie) which also features some spellbinding new-agey flutes (like in the songs "Martine" or "Lo bûhon") and great classical violin ("Hibernation"). The result is a pinnacle of hypnotic instrumental music quite difficult to classify. There is almost no singing here, except some kind of mantra in "L'hermine du pont" and "Franche-Comté". To call this LP psychedelic would be stretching a point but "Terra Incognita" has probably more in common with jazz and Eastern music than usual trad folk records - the back cover of the album with all the Beatrix Potter-like drawings is kinda misleading but we must not forget that the épinette des Vosges is a plucked-string instrument of the zither family.

L'Hermine du Pont 

Hibernation 

Lo bûhon 

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