Breton piper Erwan Keravec’s SONNEURS pipes quartet makes its UK debut in a concert featuring World Premieres of works by UK composer Laura Bowler* and French composer Géraldine Foucault.
Erwan Keravec is a highland bagpiper, composer and improviser. In seeking out the more unusual sounds, and ways of playing and listening to his instrument, far from its original cultural setting, he is exploring improvised music, free and ‘noise’ jazz, and establishing a repertoire of contemporary music for solo pipes.
After commissioning the first thirteen contemporary music pieces – nine for solo piping (Nu Piping #1) and four more for a voice and bagpipe trio (VOX, Nu Piping#2) – Erwan wished to explore the possibility of extending his ambition further than his own instrument, i.e. of modifying a strong cultural origin. To achieve this, he has set up a piping quartet that brings together the four instruments of the Breton piping tradition, starting with the historic bombard and biniou koz and including the Scottish bagpipe, which has become Breton over the last century, and the trelombard, invented to act as a counterpoint to the bombard and bagpipe in bagadou (plural of
bagad: Breton piper bands). With its culturally marked instruments, this quartet is characterised by its raw sound, rich tone colour, continuous biniou and bagpipe resonance, condensed spectrum and, obviously, powerful sound.
*Co-commissioned by sound and Offshore with support from CNM.
Image: Atelier Marge Design
