©Nolwenn Blouin – tryptyk
Here are three letters, three sounds so different and at the same time so easy to harmonize, it is also a syllable for a trio which evolves at the heart of Breton music
following its very own path.
This encounter, the musicians wanted it spontaneous, like an unrestrained conversation. Each one speaks freely, without any reverse, by simply being himself.
« Namou » « I can hear you » in Bambara, is a project which started in 2000.
In December, Kej took off for Nintabogouro via Bamako, Segou, Koutiala, where the musicians will make numerous encounters…
Making the most of his stay, Pierrick Tardivel made several sound recordings of local musicians but also recordings of daily life sounds while the other two took many pictures.
Back in Brittany, once the trip and the encounters digested, the trio gets back to work with the wish to collate Pierrick’s recording in order to extract another sound from them.
In addition to this, the trio meets Jacques -Yves Lafontaine (Mézues, Olli, …) who will allow the new project to take form. Conceived like a laboratory, Kej expresses on stage the wish to include as soon as possible new sound or visual elements, in order to be confronted to new possible expansions of their aesthetic world.
Therefore, several performances took place with the participation of the video director Thierry Salvert (festival les Arts Dînent à l’huile, festival Dre Ar Wenojenn, festival Bretagne en scène,..) the violinist Dominique Pifarely, the saxophonist François Corneloup (festival Dre Ar Wenojenn, Carré Magique-Lannion), Amadou Diallo (Mali)
This project was born from the encounter between Kej and the association Le Méridien based in Pommerit-Jaudy (22).
After a trip to Bamako, Ségou, Koutiala, Nintabougouro,… where the trio played everyday with local artists, a tour is organised with the trio Kantiguilla, then a record including the sound recordings Pierrick made in Mali sees the light with the complicity of Jacques-Yves Lafontaine. The record is produced by the association Le Méridien and the profits are used to continue the project with the village of Nintabougouro. Following this, several concerts and festivals took place, and among others: Dre Ar Wenojenn, Africolor,
Les Arts Dînent à l’Huile..
This project will be the pretext for new encounters of African musicians such as Yacouba Moumouni, Amadou Diallo, Maré Sanogo,.. or musicians coming from a jazz background (Dominique Pifarely, François Corneloup,..) and even the video director Thierry Salvert.
Evolution of the trio’s sound and musical matter with a journey through the 4 elements (fire, earth, water and air), progression through improvisation on a path marked out by the various encounters the group has been making for 11 years now (jazz, Brazilian music, African music…) with for objective to start with a Breton music which is constantly renewing itself in order to move toward an imaginary music marked by respect and freedom.
After the release of the album (November 2007), the trio gave a series of concert (one of which with Jacques Pellen) and continues its exploration of sound and musical matter.
“Here, there’s no fake combination, it’s the form and the material themselves, which change from the inside by necessity. The live electronics, without techno syncretism works on the very material.
It’s not tradition looking for a contemporary and tantalising support, but a serious and sensitive work on nowadays material which makes memory resurface.
The free and happy ability to appropriate the tool (whatever the instrument: classical, modern or electronic) in order to construct a story; invent singularity in a way that has always been used by popular music (made by the people).
From then on, no need to insist on every sound event, no ponderousness or redundancy, each instrument has a real organic presence. A way to resolutely progress and keep faithful to what has founded the path of these three musicians.
At a time when naming the other (his origin, his culture, his music) badly conceals the will to control him and to drown him in a big commercial and harmless entity, this music tells us its singularity through its very complex, sensitive rich and generous nature. Dominique Pifarély