Beautiful, entrancing set from highland bagpiper, composer and improviser, Erwan Keravec.
In seeking out the more unusual sounds, and ways of playing and listening to his instrument, far from its original cultural setting, Keravec explores improvised music, free and ‘noise’ jazz. With an interest in movement and in settings associated with reinvention, he also writes, plays and improvises for dance.
In this performance, recorded in October 2022, Keravec lets the breath ebb and flow over 40 hypnotic minutes. Dense tones buzz and drone, woozily circling the room, occasionally breaking into brief peels of light before building up into rapturous hamonic clusters and almost-giddy uliulations. With a sound that seems to perfectly fill the room - and make full use of its own sonic idiosyncrasies - Keravec utilises a dizzying range of techniques that makes this solo instrumental set one to savour.
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Recorded by Billy Steiger
Mixed and mastered by James Dunn
Cover photograph by Nicolas Godin
Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC
Tracklisting:
1. 23.10.22 - 40.50
Trained by luthier and piper Jorj Botuha, and tutored in the playing style and repertoire of Scottish bagpipes, Erwan Keravec made his debut in Lokoal Mendon's Bagad Roñsed, and as a twosome with his brother Guénolé Keravec on the bombard. Starting in 1996, he explored free jazz and improvised music with La Marmite Infernale, the ARFI big band - Association a la Recherche d'un Folklore Imaginaire – (Coeff 116 – 1997). During his time with ARFI, he took part in the Guanabara programme (2005) and played in the Baron Samedi set-up. Alongside his exploits with the Niou Bardophones – a quartet comprising the bagpipe-bombard pairing, baritone sax and drum kit – and the release of albums Air de rien (2005), Champ d’âne (2008) and Sages comme des fous (2013), he jammed with trumpeter Jean-Luc Cappozzo (Air brut – 2010), and put his name to the album Outside the budaga (2010) with Romain Baudoin, Jerome Renault and Joan Francès Tisner.
