Stephen Hunt penned this review.
Fest Vraz is, indisputably, an album “made in Breizh!” It’s a 2-CD compilation from Keltia Musique, celebrating both 20 years of that esteemed label and the memory of its founder, Herve Le Meur. In recent years, Keltia Musique has passed into the hands of Herve’s son Alain, a man obviously dedicated to the standards of excellence set by Le Meur Snr.
Anyone who claims to love traditional music, but owns nothing from Brittany, has a gaping hole in his or her CD collection. The thirty-six tracks presented here surely represent the most complete and consistent collection of Breton music ever assembled in a package of this type. The obvious precedent and comparator for Fest Vraz is Green Linnet’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection, which assembled the likes of Altan, Silly Wizard, Dick Gaughan and The Bothy Band under one roof. While the names of the Breton artists may be less familiar to non-mainland Europeans than their Scots and Irish brethren, the diversity of this music and the sheer talent of its practitioners is every bit as jaw-slackening.
This collection really does cover the dynamic and stylistic spectrum. Bagad Kemper are a legendary ensemble of massed bombardes, biniou (Breton bagpipes) and drums. Here, recorded live in the open air, they’re a musical thunderstorm; the two women (harpers and singers) who comprise Sedrenn are the clear fresh air in the aftermath. Dan Ar Braz is here too, with the most pretty and uplifting acoustic song from the Borders of Salt album. Then there’s gravel-throated Michel Tonnerre, whose band rocks with enough genuine dockside barroom swagger to expose the Pogues as a bunch of London “Johnny-come-latelies” in the Celtic authenticity stakes.
While we’re on the singers, Gilles Servat gets a couple of tracks, one of which features his lyrics set to O’Carolan’s “Eleanor Plunkett” accompanied by the harp-based group, Triskell. Alain Pennec and Soig Siberil demonstrate an intoxicating melodic and rhythmic intricacy and a total mastery of diatonic accordeon and guitar respectively. Christian Lemaitre is another Breton guitar genius, and is featured here with the group Storvan.
I could go through every artist here, track-by-track, but it would serve no useful function beyond testing my capacity for superlatives to the limit. This collection is just superb from beginning to end, whether one is listening to some age-old traditional example of alternate singing for dancing or the breathtaking inventiveness of a contemporary “super group” like Barzaz. I’ve a long held and rather strange affection for maritime singing, so it’s worth mentioning that Cabestan are probably the best group in the world in that genre. Oh, and Patrick Molard is a devastatingly good piper, and, ok, you get the picture!
The hardest part of writing a CD review is often having to come up with a snappy, memorable, “in a nutshell” line to conclude it. This one will be easy. Herve Le Meur was the best friend that Brittany’s musical traditions ever had, and Fest Vraz is, quite simply, an essential introduction to them.
(Keltia Musique, 1998)
