02/10/2026
It was with a slight sense of panic that a few months ago I noticed that vocalist Korentin Le Davay, best known for his work as frontman for the best Fest Noz band going today, War Sav, was releasing an album with another band. Had he grown tired of War Sav and moved on? Noooo! My fears were unfounded, however. Egin, Davay’s duo with Maël Guego, was actually the older of the two bands, and were finally releasing their first recording.
Egin describe themselves: Egin is unlike any other act in the world of Breton music. The duo composes folk pieces in Breton tinged with blues and jazz harmonies. Accomplices with a long friendship, Korentin Le Davay and Maël Guego dialogue with well-embodied popular Breton texts and a very colorful acoustic guitar.
Egin is a duo who observes the world, a duo listening to the way the world echoes in them. Egin talks about the world through the events and feelings that go through their lives and those of the people around them. In this eponymous record Egin, Korentin and Maël express the need to experiment with new musical styles in Breton and hope to participate in nourishing the imagination of the Breton community.
Egin has been around for years, having started playing together in high school. They are not a Fest Noz act - their repertoire consists of original songs inspired by American folk and blues acts as diverse as Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson, as well as early Breton bands from the 1970s such as Storlok. Their lyrics, always in Breton, tend towards two broad themes: nature, particularly the environment and ecology, and then social/political aspects of everyday life, such as immigration and homelessness.
Egin funded this recording through crowdfunding. On their crowdfunding page they wrote:
At the dawn of the celebration of the 10 years of Egin, we wanted to work on an album whose release is planned for the winter of 2024. Through the various tracks of this record, recorded at the Logelloù (Penvénan) during the summer of 2024, we invite you to a musical and poetic walk on the paths of our lives and our emotions.
Our history is a long friendship. We grew up together, young Bretons in a world that leads us to find our place and trace our own furrows. Each song of the recording makes you enter our intimacy, in an acoustic sound where the voice is clear and the guitar is bright. A beautiful universe from which emerges a freshness and a simplicity that recalls that of the American song writers, with lyrics grounded in a popular language.
Beyond the musical creation, we wanted to conduct a reflection on the physical object that this work will be. The choice turned to silkscreen printing, a work for which we wanted to be accompanied by our longtime ally Berc'hed Kallag. Each album will be screen-printed by us from a visual produced by Berc'hed. True to our values, we have aspired to make Egin and its production also a work of craftsmanship. We wanted to devote time to the object, beyond just the music and its interpretation.
You may have noticed the interview article by Morvan Léon on the front of the gallery above, which Egin posted on their Facebook page. We’ve translated the more interesting parts:
Q: Your duo is called Egin (sprout or bud in French). What is its story?
Maël Guego: Egin is a folk duo in Breton that has existed for ten years. We started playing music at the Diwan high school in Carhaix. Initially, there were four of us, with a percussionist and a harmonica player, for a sound close to Bob Dylan. We wrote songs at the boarding school and participated in Taol-Lañs, a competition organized every two years during the Breton national festival. We won it in 2009 and expanded to six members with a backing vocalist and a beatboxer (a type of vocal percussion). We became a duo with just Korentin and I when we turned professional.
Q: You draw inspiration from American folk music. Does that change anything about your songwriting in Breton?
Maël Guego: I often write lyrics after reading a book or going through a difficult stage in my life. I only write songs for Egin. I'm reserved, and Breton protects me. In French, it would be more complicated to talk about certain subjects.
Korentin Le Davay: Our songs are spoken in a straightforward voice, with everyday words. We talk about feelings, about all sorts of things, in a direct way; it's written like prose poetry, even if it's sometimes rhymed.
Q: You're using crowdfunding; is it the best current model?
Korentin Le Davay: It allows us to communicate, to make the public feel involved. We're working with the Beliza company, which handles the administrative procedures and with finding dates. This year, they launched into producing records for Breton artists. They produce War Sav, the band I sing in, and they're experienced with crowdfunding.
Q: Your CD will be accompanied by a screen print, why and how?
Maël Guego: We contacted an artist from Buhulien, Berc'hed Kallag, whom we went to high school with. We asked her to do the graphic design and she suggested we do everything ourselves using screen printing. We have a stencil board, we ink the stencil and then we run the screen print through all the holes of the stencil. Each copy is unique. We create gradients of color, and the ink blends little by little.
Korentin Le Davay: Being a musician is also a way of life. We try to do things ourselves, to keep a handcrafted touch. We're not just about artistic performance, we're creating an ecosystem. Berc'hed enjoys doing screen printing with others, whether it's something that people invest in or not.
~ Fañch
Vison Visu, L’Autre Distribution, 2025
12/11/2025
Vison Visu/L’Autre Distribution/2025
Personnel:
Janick Martin : diatonic accordion
Robin Fincker : saxophone, clarinet
In an intimate and imaginative encounter, Vison Visu (Face to Face) brings together the wildly talented Breton accordionist Janick Martin (Hamon-Martin, etc) and saxophonist and clarinetist Robin Fincker, who has been active for twenty years in European contemporary jazz and improvisational music scenes.
If you want a toe-tapping piece of Fest Noz ear candy, this is not the recording for you. While we’re quite tempted to say ‘casual listeners need not apply’, there’s a lot going on here and it’s hard to say who might or might not be grabbed by the rich tonality, the unfolding of strange themes, and the constant experimentation and sonic exploration. This is a recording of profound depth and virtuosity. While there are some traditional melodies buried in the ‘spine’ of this material, overall this is a jazz album with Breton roots, one that is remarkably free and quite freaky. At times there is a complex, peaceful somberness to somewhat dreamy opening segments in particular, and at other times the music builds to an Ornette Coleman-like crescendo of intense noise.
From their BandCamp page, translation ours: “Musicians with a deep love of melodies, fascinated by the magical power they can hold, Vison Visu absorbs tunes from all eras, delving into their essence and subverting conventional phrasing. Playing with breaks and melismas, dances and improvisations, the duo, with its resonant timbres, engages in a passionate and intense exchange.”
Their BandCamp page actually contains much more useful information about this recording than any other source we’ve found, so we’ll continue more-or-less paraphrasing here. The two musicians met in cellist Vincent Courtois's Finis Terrae quintet, with whom Robin Fincker has collaborated for many years. Following an invitation from the Jazz à Dissay festival, they developed a repertoire that combines the duo's original compositions with melodies from Brittany, Scotland, and the Cajun country.
Thanks to the support of contemporary music producer Marc Thouvenot, the Le Grand Pas collective, and La Buissonne studio, the duo was given the opportunity to record their repertoire in a direct and unadorned manner. Set up in the studio's main room, the pieces were recorded without cuts, in a single go and in just a few takes, allowing the duo to give free rein to their taste for the unexpected as well as sonic exploration. Mixed by Gérard de Haro and mastered by Nicolas Baillard at La Buissonne, Vison Visu's music conveys a non-linear expression of the passage of time, composed of cyclical comings and goings and interplay of memories, where the pleasure of playing and storytelling prevails over any preconceived plan.
Where to get it: As always, a reminder that we do not support the use of streaming services, which undermine the ability of actual musicians to make a living. While this recording can be purchased digitally via iTunes, we recommend the same BandCamp page referenced above for digital and/or physical media.
The URL is: https://robinfinckerjanickmartin.bandcamp.com/album/vison-visu
- Fañch
10/28/2025
Personnel:
Vocalists:
Sterenn Diridollou
Marine Lavigne
Sterenn Le Guillou
Instrumentalists :
Antoine Lahay – guitars
Julien Stévenin – double bass
Jonathan Dour – alto violin
To read vocalist Marine Lavigne’s interview with Musique bretonne magazine, click HERE.
Eben, formed in 2018 for the Festival Interceltique de Lorient's “New Leurenn #3” project, is a Breton sextet with a clear artistic vision: to blend strings and voices, using the traditional kan ha diskan vocal style to tell contemporary stories. The sextet’s artistic statement was clearly laid down on the back of the jacket of their 2019 self-titled debut:
Eben is a Breton word meaning "the other" in the feminine form. Their latest release, Dinaskañ, is an astonishingly powerful recording of tremendous ambition and scope. Three young vocalists take Breton kan ha diskan -style singing to a new place with complex arrangements and exquisite harmonies, while the superb instrumental accompaniment is unique, nuanced, and wildly creative. Dinaskañ explores themes of resistance, poetry, and liberation. Demonstrating a visceral desire to enhance the Breton language, all texts are written and sung in Breton, albeit fully translated into french in the accompanying booklet. A small exception is the song "Douar Nevez" (New World), which includes a Galician section reflecting the group's broader inter-celtic influences.
In this record the lyrics address very current topics: social struggles, women's rights, the defense of minority languages and, hearteningly in these troubled times, resistance to fascism. The title Dinaskañ, meaning to unbind, or break free, is drawn from a poem by the renowned Breton poet Angela Duval, and encapsulates the group's intention to break down boundaries, both musical and societal. From the politically charged anti-fascist Dañs ar Bleiz, to Eostig Kuzh, a compelling feminist anthem, the album skillfully balances political engagement with musical depth. The album captures both personal and collective struggles, with moments that range from quiet introspection (Hillig ur pok) to intense, tension-filled passages (Tremen) and bursts of optimism (Douar Nevez).
The vocal trio of Sterenn Diridollou (replacing Enora Jegou from the first recording) , Marine Lavigne, and Sterenn Le Guillou stand out with their distinctive voices and technical prowess, delivering mesmerizing performances that range from powerful to subtle. Accompanied by Antoine Lahay (guitars), Julien Stévenin (double bass), and Jonathan Dour (alto violin, a five string violin/viola hybrid), the group creates a sophisticated, singular sound combining elements of traditional music and jazz, among other influences. This musical setting is complex, subtle, and immersive, with each track contributing to a captivating and atmospheric listening experience.
Through arrangements written, for the most part, by the three instrumentalists, and with most of the lyrics written by Lavigne, Dinaskañ uses traditional Breton music and singing to evoke very current subjects. Dinaskañ avoids folk clichés, instead offering a fresh, emotionally resonant take on Breton music. It is an engaging, dynamic album that merges cultural traditions with political themes and musical innovation, making it a compelling listen for those who appreciate music with both artistry and message.
- Fañch
”Strings and voices, Kan ha diskan singing the stories of our time.”
