Philippe Grellier & Jacques Michenaud - Kas Abarh (Musiques De Bretagne)

In the always expanding universe of Brittany music Kas Abarh holds a special place in the rather confidential circle of Bretagne records enthusiasts, not only for its east-meets-west-of-west trope it explores on the mind-blowing "Save-Heol", but also for the purity of the LP's sound, and the arrangements overall minimalism. It's no overstatement to say that it's a record like no other. 

I have a special regional connection with this record, as I grew up at the crossroad of the small Bretonne regions Kas Abarh documents, a few kilometers from the musicians hometown of Nantes - it's weird to read song titles mentioning like unremarkable tiny places Sautron that I know well on a record sleeve.  I even vaguely know family members of Jacques Michenaud. Anyway, it's a piece of trivia of little interest, and it would be of no interest at all to me if the music, for once, wasn't spectularly singular. 

Even for fusion bretonne music standards, Kas Abarh is a peculiar album : there's a dryness to its sound that creates a very different ambiance than the lush fretless basses and the bright sounds of a large majority of 1980's fusion celtic music records. It's especially striking on tracks with a wider set of instruments, like "Rond de Sautron", whose subterraean groove rather evokes indie folk guitar releases than the lush sound of a jazz-fusion influenced Breton band like Barzaz. Of course, the most noticeable song is the incredible sitar-meets-bombarde 8min suite "Sav-Heol", but it would be a shame to reduce the record to this oddity. It's an earthy, radical but highly enjoyable psycheogegraphical trip through a larger Bretagne, with every track being as tense as and as psychoactive as the opening brain-melting "Distro deus Ar Vro-Zu". Highest Recommendation. (NM / NM)

Tracklist

1.  Distro deus Ar Vro-Zu (Suite Plin)
2. L'Hirondelle
3. Marche Du Pays Des Montagnes
4. Belle Qui A Pris Mon Coeur
5. Le Fard De La Servante
6. Mélodie
7. Danse Du Pays Léon
8. Rond De Sautron
9. La Scottische A Jacquot
10. Scottische Du Pays De Retz
11. Kas A Barh
12. Mélodie Du Plouay-Berne
13. Marche Du Pays Vannetais
14. Sav-Heol (Suite Fisel)