12/29/2024
Duo Fagon/Hellard/Le krign était presque parfait/ Coop Breizh/2024
Personnel:
Franck Fagon - alto sax, clarinette
Jean-Sébastien Hellard - accordeon charomatique, cornet
Le krign était presque parfait (The Krign was almost perfect) is the nearly perfect new recording by the duo of Franck Fagon (alto sax and clarinet) and Jean-Sébastien Hellard (chromatic accordion and cornet). Although the duo has had several delightful tracks available on Soundcloud for several years, this is their first official release, distributed by Coop Breizh in partnership with France Bleu Breizh-Izel.
At its core most Breton music is based on call-and-response and therefore a duo can form a complete and satisfying musical unit. The gamut of how this is expressed can range widely, from rudimentary performance of a given piece of music - let’s say, several tunes in a straightforward medley with basic chordal accompaniment - to intricate suites with complex instrumental interplay, highly dynamic approaches to harmony and rhythm, and diverse elements such as counter melodies, interludes, and solos. This type of evocative depth and complexity is the ‘krign’ of this recording.
‘Krign’ was an expression used by Fagon's grandmother to refer to delicious remnants of buttered potatoes that had been hard-cooked to the bottom of the pot. In personal correspondence, Franck told us that “the krign is more precisely the pieces of potatoes grilled in butter which remain stuck to the bottom of the dish which you have to scrape hard to be able to eat. And it is indeed a treat!”
Indeed, for years this duo has thoroughly cooked their repertoire of material drawn from dance types from across Brittany. The choice of individual tunes, the order of tunes within each medley to build and release tension and explore different moods; all are top notch. It was an absolute delight to discover and rediscover the many surprising moments of beautiful creativity in this recording. These guys aren’t just playing through the A and B parts of the tunes, they’ve taken it a step beyond. While it’s not within the scale of this review to give a track-by-track description, the highlights of each player are worth mentioning.
First off, the chromatic accordion of Jean-Sébastien Hellard was an absolute revelation on this recording. Hellard had already impressed in his earlier genre-spanning duo recording Cats and Dogs with clarinetist Fred Miossec in 2016, but the techniques fully developed here set Krign apart. Despite impeccable melody lines and a bevy of other superlative complex harmonic and arrangement choices throughout, he makes his biggest mark with the novel use of the right (melody) hand to play chords, creating deliciously exhilarating, pulsing chordal sections that drive the tunes with astonishing momentum. For an example, check out the opening section of the excellent video Kas a barh: “an neudenn en nadoz” attached to the right, and again at 3:05 into the video. The overall impression is of a precise, cerebral player who has really put hard work into creating something different, detailed, and compelling. Hellard also plays cornet, on Katpatakorn. “It just brings a little color to the piece with generally long notes”, Fagon told us.
Franck Fagon has been on the scene for some time. Despite some excellent playing with the group Yao! and a partnership with accordionist Yann-Fañch Perroches, among others, Fagon has never seemed to quite pull all the pieces together into a fully successful recording that really showcases his talents - until now. What Fagon has to offer is incredibly solid playing - rhythmically always absolutely spot on, with perfect intonation and tremendous tonal control. His playing on this recording is flawless and tasteful. His mastery of the material is plainly evident, and when he takes a solo, as on the Cercle Circassien track Katpatakorn, he has what it takes to really deliver, jazz chops coming to the fore. As a slight aside, I’ve never really liked most Cercle Circassiens, which are a somewhat odd intrusion of the jig structure from the Irish/Scottish milieu into Breton music due to ‘pan-celtic’ cultural activities in the past number of decades. This one is not bad, though, and that’s saying something for a reviewer not particularly enamored of Irish music.
Given what’s happening here, it is not surprising that these two have been playing together since 2013, since it typically takes a lot of time and energy to develop arrangements to this degree. The arrangements are intricate and the quality of the performance is impressive throughout. This is easily the best Fest Noz recording of the last couple years.
~ Fañch
