VARIOUS ARTISTS - Autour De La Guitare Celtique
With Jean-Felix Lalanne, Dan Ar Braz, Soig Siberil, Gilles le Bigot and Gildas Arzel.
Calane Production CDADLGCELT
Attending the Festival de Cornouaille in Quimper, Brittany (www.festival-cornouaille.com) has become an annual pilgrimage for me. An unmissable event this year was the concert performance of this touring project by these five exceptional and illustrious guitarists (which, in Quimper, opened with a solo set by Pierre Bensusan - a ‘deluge of strings’ according to the local newspaper! - and featured a guest appearance by Irish fiddler Gerry O’Connor which received a hugely warm audience response). Reprising a concept realised by Lalanne in 1999/2000, now with the theme of ‘l’ambiance celtique’, this show was recorded live at its premiere in Tregunc in Finisterre in southern Brittany in January.
The 17 tracks comprise pieces by each of the individual players, revealing their several Irish associations, supported by various combinations of the others. Interviewed in a local newspaper, Lalanne talked of an ‘orchestra of strings’ with ‘technique always at the service of melody’, an accurate description of his achievement. With the combined skills of the players in layering rhythms and melodic counterpoint, absence of drums/percussion and other instruments (for the most part) is not an issue.
Siberil and le Bigot are outstanding acoustic guitarists (whose work, especially in open tunings, should be known by anyone interested in this instrument). In addition to seminal influences on the development of contemporary Breton music - through groups such as Barzaz, Kornog and Skolvan - both have extensive experience of Irish music. In addition to their part in the several jigs and reels (including great renditions of Master Crowley/Jug of Punch), they, at times with Lalanne or Arzel, provide a rich rhythmic infrastructure, combining intricate chords and picking, often for Ar Braz’s intensely creamy melodic and uniquely distinctive electric guitar lines to flow. Gildas Arzel offers some rock, blues and bluegrass influences in places adding further to the textural range.
There is plenty of colour, light and shade through varied combinations of the players and use too of bouzouki and tamboura. Delights include Ker Jacob (recorded by le Bigot on his album Empreintes) and Siberil’s Quand La Bogue Dort (a dance/march from the Redon area of Brittany), which each exemplify the magic of Breton acoustic guitar work; Lalanne’s Dance With Ea; and Ar Braz’s fluid and infectiously catchy lead playing on Un Galicien Libre A Paris (which was written for Carlos Nunez), Avenue Du Hent Glaz and Siberil’s 3 Rivieres.
Yes, being live there is some recorded audience noise and introductory voices and banter (twice track listed as ‘presentations’!) but it’s live, c’est normale! Contemporary Brittany has a wonderfully rich, eclectic and vibrant musical culture in which the guitar is often a vital instrument. If you treat this as a first course, then your main course should be Kerden – Cordes de Bretagne (1998 – GWP014), a sample introduction to many other brilliant guitarists from Brittany. This was how I discovered most of the players in Lalanne’s project and I cannot begin to describe how much great music I have found through this recording.
See also www.coop-breizh.fr
Kevin T Ward
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this CD online from The Listening Post The Listening Post is the CD mailorder service of The Living Tradition magazine. This album was reviewed in Issue 86 of The Living Tradition magazine. |