Search - Erik Marchand & Thierry Robin :: Songs of Central Brittany

Wonderful Collaboration

D. Leger | Seattle, WA United States | 06/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is a great collaboration between the Breton singer Erik Marchand and the oud player Thierry Robin. Breton music has a very haunting and modal sound, and Marchand works off of the native scales and modes found in that part of Western France. The oud is naturally suited to playing outside of the Western scale, and Robin's playing brings out the un-Western sounds of the stark songs. The songs are just gorgeous, the oud playing divine, and there's cool accompaniment on bombarde, violin, and tablas. Doesn't get better than this, highly recommended."

Unique Sound

Eric Vondy | Phoenix | 07/28/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD of traditional songs has a very different sound than anything I've heard previously. There is minimal instrumentation; oud & tablas mainly with a bit of violin and some kind of wind instrument. Marchand and Marcel Guillou handle the vocals. Thierry Robin plays oud only. The songs are duets. It's sound is very hard to describe. Its a kind of staccato, in a way almost serialistic. It doesn't feel like anything French or Celtic or Gypsy that I've ever heard. It almost sounds like a couple of French guys trying to make Pygmy music or trying to make up their own Islamic prayers. I wouldn't call it accessible. It's very good but it's also very challenging."

Songs of Central Brittany, E. Marchand and Thierry Robin

R. L. Tompkins | Albuquerque, New Mexico United States | 08/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great CD. Erik Marchand is one of the acknowledged masters of Kan ha Diskan singing from western Brittany (Breiz izel). On this CD he performs some traditional Kan ha Diskan dance music as well as presenting some very interesting experiments with the Gwerziou style of songs (often translated as "complaints", perhaps "breton style blues") utilizing Thierry Robin on the oud. It works beautifully, creating a very haunting and mournful atmosphere in keeping with the basic feeling of Gwerziou. The traditional music of Brittany has struck many people as sounding much older and more "primitive" (in the original and good sense, not the derogatory sense) than much of the music of other celtic lands, especially Scotland and Ireland. Perhaps it is this more distantly rooted tradition that allows the greater experimentation with other influences that one finds in the modern day tradition-based musical scene in Brittany. This is a great example of exactly that experimentation, the very old tradtions of Breiz being complemented by the distinctly middle eastern sound of the Oud. Highly recommended for those interested in traditional Breton music and experiments with that wonderful tradition."