ENTER THE TRANCE

We’re back from our summer quasi-vacation, where one contributor took a big break after a bout of recording, and the other was quite ill with covid.  

Below is an article we did not write, but translated from the lovely Bretons magazine. Look to our upcoming review of the new Fleuves recording, #3. Were we as impressed as Bretons magazine? Early hint: not entirely.

We meet with the trio Fleuves, the Fest Noz group whose performances fill the dance-halls in Brittany and who tour as far afield as the Villa Medici in Rome. They are releasing a third album this fall, always guided by the passion for the essence of Fest Noz: collective and popular dance.

Just a few days ago, heifers occupied the place. It took hours of work - scraping the ground, installing a floor, a stage - to transform this barn into a dance hall. It's an evening that Brittany knows how to produce. Somewhere between Langonnet and Gourin, in the center of Morbihan, in the heart of a village, farmers add a little sweat and elbow grease to get it ready for the night party, the Fest-Noz.

Fleuves are three Bretons, all around the age of forty. Émilien Robic (clarinet) and his cousin Samson Dayou (bass), are both from Central Morbihan, between Le Faouët and Querrien. Drenched in traditional dance and music since childhood, they played together in the group Kentañ (see review HERE). The two met Romain Dubois (keyboards and electronics), originally from Combourg, during jazz-rock jams in their adolescent years in Rennes. His Fender Rhodes piano and programmed electronic loops take Fleuves towards another, very particular sound.

The troops are ready, the volunteers are busy. “We don’t really know if we will have 300 people… or 1000!” whispers one of the organizers. Because the group that begins to roll out its sound loops on stage is not just any group. This trio is Fleuves. A clarinet, a bass guitar, a keyboard. Since its formation in 2013, Fleuves has carved out a unique place for itself in the world of traditional music. Hundreds of people travel to Brittany to watch their performance. Fleuves is the ‘lighthouse’ group of Breton music of the moment. This fall they released their third album, simply called #3. 

One might be tempted to summarize their style as elegantly blending ‘electro’ with the rhythms of Breton dance and the traditional clarinet’s sound. The trio rejects labels though, choosing to instead evoke their one and only objective: dance. “We never wanted to make a collage of styles, nor to be characterized by a particular style. We first want to make people dance,” says Romain, who also loves the contemporary dance scene. "For Fleuves, I composed quite a bit from videos, from traditional dance competitions, for example. I cut the sound and I try to compose from what I see. Often, in Brittany, the musicians start from a melody, take up themes. We start from the logic of the body, and then we add a melodic and rhythmic logic.”

The result is a unique sound, new in Breton music, which for several years has been wildly popular. Fleuves is undoubtedly the only Fest-Noz group that sells out all their dates, even while performing around thirty times a year. In 2024, the group have even gone as far abroad as the Villa Medici in Rome or the Suds in Arles. A demanding schedule when we know that, of the three musicians in the group, only Romain has made it his profession. Emilien is a gardener, while Samson remains a physics teacher.

“Completely crazy”

Here too, is a Breton specificity. “In other circles, either you make a living from music, or you are an amateur and therefore a loser,” claims Romain. “In Brittany, there is no such outlook. You can be a great player and also have another job on the side.” The three musicians are deeply rooted in this culture. “You get used to it, but the Fest-Noz is still completely crazy,” assures Samson. “Seeing several hundred people moving together in collective dances, losing themselves and going into a trance state…” Romain, who discovered the world of Fest Noz later in life, enthuses. "I have quite a few discussions about trance with club-scene dancers. Each time, I tell them: Come and see it in Brittany! Trance is often seen as something exotic, tribal, from another continent. While really there is something happening right here, close to home - we just need to change our perspective!”

Our Thoughts...

This is a lovely article, but we thought we’d take this opportunity to weigh in on one point. First of all, almost all reviews and articles about Fest Noz bands are ridiculously adulatory. The reviews, with a few exceptions from Cri de Lormeau  are little more than hyperbolic, pumped-up press releases, which is unfortunate although we get why that might be. This article isn’t a review so it gets to be as pumped-up as it wants. Still, we want to fact-check the claim that Fleuves is the ‘lighthouse’ band in Breton music. How to get at the data? Well, the wonderful website tamm-kreiz.com, which we’ll have to do an article about, provides a data-driven word ballon infographic on which terms are searched for the most often on their site. Yes, you can see Fleuves is in the top 10, but what is the real ‘lighthouse’ band? It’s not even the slightest surprise that it’s… WAR-SAV! Yes, the old-school combination of traditional melodies, great vocals and instrumental excitement wins every time.

~ Fañch