07/27/2018
Darhaou/direnni,/Coop Breizh/2017
Personnel:
Ronan BLEJEAN / Accordéon diatonique
Etienne CALLAC / Guitare basse
Stéphane FOLL / Biniou
Ronan LE DISSEZ / Bombarde, Piston, Duduk
Olivier URVOY / Clarinette , Saxophone
Erwan VOLANT / Guitare acoustique
Darhaou went on a hiatus for a few years after their third recording ‘An Deirvet’. Featuring vocalist “Krismenn” Christophe Le Menn, “An Deirvet” had an oddly subdued, downbeat and melancholic vibe that certainly wasn’t terrible but did not generate great excitement. Fast forward to 2017 and with a slight reshuffling of personnel Darhaou releases direnni’ perhaps their most interesting recording. Direnni is also notable in that it appears that much or all of the recording was done earlier and there was a considerable delay in release.
For this recording bombard player Ronan Le Dissez’s perennial musical partner Stéphane Foll has joined the group full time, adding the high sound of the biniou bagpipe to the top of the band’s sound in carefully placed sections for most of the tunes for a really exceptional effect.
Original bass player Pierrick Tardivel has been replaced by Etienne Callac, a veteran of many projects such as the group ‘Kejaj’. Callac brings a uniquely vibrant, pulsing dimensionality to the bottom end that pushes the energy level up.
Ronan Le Dissez breaks away from his use of the bombard in A to add the lower, sweeter sound of the Breton oboe or “piston” to several tracks. This works wonderfully and adds a lot of dimension and depth to the recording. The use of the piston here, combined with some beautiful melodies and careful arrangements, gives a distinctly ’Skolvan’ vibe that most bands are incapable of aspiring to. Dissez also adds, on track 12, Men meur (mélodie), the armenian duduk (a double-reed instrument with an incredibly wide reed and extremely deep, meditative sound) for a contemplative, slow retake of an earlier track. Dissez is one of several bombard players to recently record with the duduk – a small trend.
Many of the tracks on this recording show a depth of arrangement that is clearly a step up from what has gone before. The buildup and then breathtaking release of musical tension on pieces such as Le jus des pommes (tour) propels the listener’s interest with great intensity. While Darhaou has always been able to create music with great drive, here we find more compelling melodies and imaginative arrangements as well.
The use of the piston also creates a new dimension when paired with the clarinet of Olivier Urvoy, on pieces such as Les cordes (dañs plinn) where the duo engage in gorgeous call-and-response. Urvoy’s ‘treujenn gaol’ sound on the recording is as hauntingly beautiful as ever, with the strange exception of a sax solo on the opening track La belle qui fait la morte (hanter dro) where it comes across as though it were a sampled line added in post-production, curiously lacking in dynamics. I’d love to know what happened there. Interestingly enough, that same track is one where Erwan Volant’s unique and wonderful rhythm guitar is put to splendid use. Volant, using an electro-acoustic guitar with nylon strings, has an incredible sense of rhythm and a tasty repertoire of jazzy chords that fill the sonic space perfectly.
This a recording that those who don’t bother with anything but the best from this genre of music will definitely want to have and treasure. It’s delightfully good.
- Fañch
