Daou Don Dãns

Visitors to Brittany are almost certain to encounter a bagad, the bagpipe, drum and bombarde(shawm) bands through which, since the middle of the last century, the Bretons have asserted their identity. Steven Bodénès plays bombarde and conducts the Bagad Kemper, one of the oldest bagad bands. Sylvain Hamon is a piper in Bagad Cap Caval. The bagad repertoire draws on an older tradition of Breton music in which the bombarde, a raucous double-reed shawm, duets with the biniou(bagpipes). This itself draws on the pairing of singers in the vocal tradition known as kan ha diskan.

Bodénès and Hamon, who have worked together as a duo for 15 years, have been inspired by the older generation of musicians, such as Loeiz Ropars (he invented the Fest-Noz, the festival-cum-ceilidh of modern Brittany), and singers such as Yann Morvan. They have gathered an enjoyable selection of gavottes, other dance tunes and songs from central Brittany. The songs are well handled by Rozenn Talec, and given a contemporary twist by Thibault Niobé's nimble guitar and Julien Le Mentec's bass guitar. But the heart of this labour of love is something older, the powerful call, response and intersection of Bodénès’ bombarde and Hamon's bagpipes.