07/11/2024
Ivarh, Huñvre, Paker Prod, 2023
https://www.pakerprod.bzh/album/ivarh-hunvre/
Personnel:
Elouan LE SAUZE - vocals
Pablo MOLARD - acoustic guitar and effects
Ewen COURIAUT - saxophones
Benjamin BESSÉ - 12-string electric guitar and analog synthesizer
Thomas BESSÉ - percussion and drums
Invité:
Hélène LABARRIÈRE - double bass
Here is a group somewhat unlike anything I’ve heard before. Huñvre means “dream” in Breton and this is a well-chosen name for their first full-length recording, which carries a distinctly surreal, dream-like quality across a program that could possibly be referred to as ‘folk rock’. That categorization might be somewhat deceptive, however. Huñvre has little in common with definitive acts of yesteryear such as Steeleye Span or, closer to home, the 70s efforts of Alan Stivell with his emphatic rock sounds frankensteined onto traditional material.
Ivarh is the Breton name for a ‘hollow’ or rustic rural path traced between two hedges: a ribbon of land where travelers cross, meet, leave and return. The marketing suggests a lot of excitement around the concept of paths meeting, crossing; perhaps there is some mist, with people, sounds, and ideas from different places and times mysteriously meeting… you get the idea.
The quintet’s music is light, soaring, dreamlike; a dynamic, fully contemporary and singular sound nonetheless deeply rooted in the traditions of central Brittany and Pays Vannetais, from where Le Sauze, a native of Lorient, primarily draws his inspiration. The bulk of the material is traditional. Huñvre seamlessly melds folk – Pablo Molard’s exquisite acoustic guitar introduces many pieces – and sophisticated electronic textures coming from Benjamin Bessé’s electric 12-string guitar and analog synthesizer. Besse’s sounds are diverse and complex, sometimes drawing on Eno-esque ambience but then also producing intriguingly complex electronic melodic riffs.The resulting material is more akin to Dead Can Dance than to Fairport Convention, although the 90s group Dibenn might provide a better comparison than either.
Pablo Molard, a scion of the legendary Molard family, is responsible for much of the arrangement as well as the composition of the album’s original material, while Le Sauze composed some of the lyrics. Le Sauze has a wonderfully haunting voice, vibrant and melancholy, full-voiced yet tinged with more than a hint of the archetypal Breton vibrato. Unlike the most typical kan-ha-diskan scenario, there is no second vocalist. Instead, the call-and-response aspect is handled by the panoply of talented instrumentalists. The most notable instrument in terms of melody is Ewen Couriaut's saxophone. This guy can really play. While Timothy Le Bour has become a nearly ubiquitous presence wherever saxophone is called for in the Breton genre, to my surprise I think I prefer Couriaut’s tone here to that found on the new Le Bour-Bodros recording— deep, meaty, incisive and with a distinctive character giving it great presence in the mix.
The excellent percussion of Thomas Bessé provides rhythmic backbone to the band’s dense arrangements. Although I didn’t feel like the sound was lacking, I was still a bit surprised to see an empty space where a bass player would go, except for guest player Hélène Labarièrre on track 6, Lârit Din. Generally speaking, Huñvre is a successful recording. There is one glaring flaw, however, which is in the production.
Invoking the apt metaphor, I feel like we are a bit like a broken record in calling out the frequent production fails in modern recording efforts. This is almost always because with modern technology and the implosion of the recording industry due to the dominance of streaming services, many recordings are much more DIY efforts than in the past. The strange thing about the production is that in many regards it is excellent. There is ample potential for a murky soundstage with all the instruments going - as I said earlier, dense arrangements, but that is not the problem. Pablo Molard’s excellent guitar playing is near the front of the mix, and the other instruments are not far behind and together they really fill one’s headphones in a highly detailed fashion. The problem is with the vocals. Perhaps in the cause of creating a more ‘dreamy’ sound, Le Sauze’s vocals have the reverb turned way up, so that he sounds like he is singing in a cavern while the rest of the group is in a smallish room. He is also mixed back, an odd choice for a lead vocal. I am guessing that all you would have to do is turn the reverb dial in the DAW about 75% down on the lead vocal, and perhaps bring him up in the mix by just a db or two, and the problem would be completely solved. This problem is not super-noticeable in a cheap stereo or tinny earbuds, but it sounds quite odd on a decent stereo or headphones.
To be sure, this does not ruin the recording, but it bumps it down from what could have been really exceptional to just a good recording. However, it is still pretty cool; you just have to overlook the echoey effect laid ham-fistedly over the vocals.
~ Fañch
