Dañs!

Take a voice steeped in Breton tradition, team it with two musicians from a younger generation, and have another look at one of the old song-forms revived in the 1970s: that's the recipe here. Yann-Fañch Kemener speaks Breton as his mother tongue and is a veteran of many Fest-noz – the night festivals through which Breton traditional music has been shared and renewed. Kemener began collecting and recording what's become a valuable archive of traditional Breton songs in 1977, but this album shows a new approach: taking the central kan ha diskan (call-and-response) dance form, where two singers toss the phrases backwards and forwards, adding slight variations each time; and instead framing the kaner (lead singer) with guitar and accordion, so the voice is now in dialogue with the instrumental melodies and harmonies. The light touch, dance rhythms, drones and ornamentation of Kemener, with Heikki Bourgault (guitar) and Erwann Tobie (accordion), draw us through a well-chosen sequence of traditional numbers, where foxes steal hens, young men hope to marry the most beautiful girl in the village, the devil lurks at the end of an alley, and women are warned of the dangers of taking their grist to the mill. Utterly and vitally refreshing.