Rachele Andrioli leads the singing workshop of the Bogue d’Or, one of four run by the Groupement Culturel Breton des Pays de Vilaine. Work turns on polyphony and on what the Apulian repertoire shares with Eastern Europe, Africa and South America. For its 51st edition the festival has left the Croix des Marins for the Carré 9 and its marquees, home to fest-noz, fest-deiz and the concours chant à danser. Andrioli sings again at Chicass’Noz.
Tag: folk-music
Comme un souffle: Breton Accordion Concert-Reading
Comme un souffle is a concert-reading for two accordions, given at the Centre Culturel Perenn in Cléguérec. Morgane Simon’s compositions for the diatonic accordion meet Jérémy Simon’s improvisations on the chromatic concert accordion. Between the pieces the duo reads passages from Bauchau, Jaccottet, Schmitt, Blanckaert and Rimbaud. The music is of Breton inspiration, and by the close the small and large bellows are heard as a single breath.
Gwerzioù & sonioù du Trégor, Ifig and Nanda Le Troadec
Ifig and Nanda Le Troadec are a couple on stage as in life, and Brittany’s fest-noz dancers know them for the kan ha diskan of Centre-Bretagne and Haute-Cornouaille. This veillée leaves the dance floor for the gwerzioù and sonioù of their native Trégor, sung in French and in Breton. Love songs sit beside epic tales, grandes complaintes, satires, children’s songs and darker ones. These were fireside songs, or songs thrown out at fairs and pardons.
C’hwezh Houarnet at Notre-Dame, Plouaret
Louri Derrien plays trumpet, Simon Latouche trombone and Yann-Ewen L’Haridon saxophones, and two of them also sing. Their sources are the traditional repertoire of central Brittany: the tunes made for dancing, and the gwerzioù, laments sung in Breton. The players work from the historical texts behind that repertoire. They have played together for years in Modkozmik Galactik and bring original compositions to the series Les Balades en Tregor runs.
Fest-noz des 40 ans du Bagad Bro Konk Kerne
The Bagad Bro Konk Kerne has carried the Breton pipe-band repertoire for four decades, and marks the anniversary with a fest-noz at Melgven. Its Bagadig and its Pipe-Band open the hall before the dancing. The Hamon-Martin Quintet, Blue Glaz and Kaféhin then take the stand, with the singers Irvoas and Flouret and the piper pairs Henaff/Meunier and Carrer/Perennou. A parquet is laid for dancers, and the bar serves crêpes and galettes-saucisses.
Guillaume Yaouank at the Ballons Rouges
Guillaume Yaouank grew up in the maritime air of Lorient and sings with nothing but his voice and a guitar. His repertoire is maritime folk song in its purest form, with a Breton seafaring flair and a detour to his Irish cousins. Five albums and years of touring in France and abroad sit behind the set. He plays the Café Théâtre des Ballons Rouges, a small room in Lamballe-Armor.
Fest Noz with Carré Manchot and Sterne, Plédran
Carré Manchot has been playing Festoû-Noz for forty years and brings a wooden transverse flute, accordion, guitar and Armel An Hejer’s voice to Plédran. Sterne arrives from Saint-Cast with bombarde, biniou and bourdon behind violin, folk guitar and its own singing. The duo Le Bour Bodros answers with Timothée Le Bour’s saxophones against Youen Bodros’s accordion. Three sets, one dance floor, in the hall’s own season.
Emma Tribute plays Matmatah at the Triskell, Meucon
Emma Tribute is five Morbihan musicians who play the repertoire of Matmatah, and the Groupe Interquartiers Meucon Musique has booked them into the Salle du Triskell. The association files the evening under rock celtique et tradi, the Breton strand of the genre. The set runs from “Lambé An Dro” to “Brest-même”, songs a crowd here can sing back. A food truck and a bar stand outside the hall.
Dremmwel : quarante ans de scène
Dremmwel is a traditional-music group based at Quimper, and this concert marks the forty years it has spent on the road. The programme reworks part of its repertoire and honours the musicians who shaped it. The storyteller Patrik Ewen holds the narrative thread on the theme of the horizon, which is what dremmwel means in Breton. The guests around him include the harpist Klervi Rivière and the Bigouden ensemble Bagad Cap Caval.
Session de musique bretonne at Mar’mousse
Musicians gather at Mar’mousse, a kav, bar and resto in Plérin, to play Breton tunes together. The invitation is to come and play, not to listen: newcomers are eased in on an easy stretch first, and the session proper is launched afterwards. Anyone who would rather dance than play is welcome to, which is what the repertoire is for. The house signs its own pages in Breton, Produet e Breizh hag e brezhoneg gant karantez. Entry is free.