Bro Dreger VII Dans Kernev - Gavotte/Diffusion Breizh/1995

Here’s a real treat: the exquisite seventh recording of the Bro Dreger (Tregor region) series of recordings produced by the Kreizenn Sevenadurel Lannuon organization. KSL has continually produced low fanfare yet beautifully done recordings in this ongoing series, or rather two series, for years. This recording is part of the Collection Bro Dreger series, of which there are 15 numbered anthology recordings, each with a particular emphasis such as instruments, area, dance type, etc. KSL also has a second series, Collection Tud Bro Dreger, which are not numbered and represent the work of a single artist or group. The most recent of these was released in 2023, Etrezek an aber sall by  Gildas Moal & René Chaplain, which we will examine in the near future.

Bro Dreger VII was released in 1995. This anthology features a broad variety of pairs of musicians (and a trio), each playing a three-track gavotte suite. The combinations include bombard and biniou, bombard and accordion, flute and guitar, singers, and clarinets. It’s a wonderfully done recording with straight-ahead performances of top-notch players, many of them quite famous, captured with a warm sound and zero artifice or studio tricks. It’s great. I first purchased a cassette of this in Brittany and drove around the country with it playing in my crummy little rental car. I spent some time with Jamie McMenemy of Kornog etc fame, and he excitedly told me “I did the cover art for that one!” Sure enough, check out the signature on the cover art. 

This recording is extremely Breton sounding. Don’t know what that means? That’s too bad, because it’s not available… or is it? This is where the real treat I mentioned at the start of this article comes in. Because it’s out of print, KSL makes it available on their website as mp3 tracks. You can either play them as pictured in the mp3 player screen shot to the right, or you can use some simple mouse actions to first, select a track  and right-click to ‘Open Link in New Tab’ and then on the new tab, right-click again and ‘Save Audio As’.  If you click on the music player image to the right it will open a new browser tab and take you right to the real thing. Notice at the top of the image it says ’Pour le livret, c’est ici’. That’s the link to download the very cool booklet.

~Fañch