Artist : Didier Squiban
Album : Molene
Year : 1997
Genre : Instrumental
Quality : 230kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo
Source : CD
Playtime : 1h 05m
Size : 113.9mb
Label : L'OZ
Catalognr : L'OZ 17
Tracklist:
01. Ar Baradoz 4:26
02. An Alac'h 1:13
03. Suite D'an Dro Du Pays Vannetais 3:59
04. Ledenez 3:26
05. Kost Ar C'hoat 5:05
06. Tri Men 4:33
07. Iroise 3:17
08. Suite De Gavottes Des Montagnes 3:02
09. An Skoliater 2:26
10. Trugerekat Men Dous 3:02
11. Ker Eon 3:39
12. Kerzhadenn / Pedenn 4:11
13. Variations Sur LaridΘ α 6 Temps 4:45
14. Marche Des Conscrits Du Faouδt 4:08
15. Enez Eusa 5:05
16. Me Zo Ganet E Kreiz Ar Mor 3:49
17. An Oed A Driverc'h Vle 3:06
18. Bannec 2:17
Releasenotes:
A year prior the release of Le Onde, the debut of Ludovico Einaudi, an italian
pianist of international success who revolutionized (at least in Italy) the
masses' idea of the piano, a lesser known Breton pianist named Didier Squiban
released his first work: Molene.
Almost all of the pieces are traditional Breton songs arranged sometimes in a
jazzy way, sometimes in a new age/ambient one, and divided in three suites: each
one is made of six pieces, which have the name of the last one. Squiban can
perfectly play with the Breton sounds so it is almost impossible to discern what
is written by him and not simply arranged. He also has an enviable knowledge of
music theory, managing perfectly frequent changes of time signature ("Ar
Baradoz" changes its time signature sixteen times), and less frequent changes of
tonality. Another of Molene's strengths is the way he uses a lot of tuplets,
like quintuplets, septuples, decuplets and tredecuplets. The result of the union
of all these elements is a truly inspired and technical work, one that if it had
been written 100 years ago, today it would quite likely be a classic.
So, every technicality is not a purpose to itself, on the contrary they don't
seem constrained in any way. But technicalities are nothing without the beauty:
take "Ledenez" for instance, it seems to be more of a romantic piano
improvisation rather than a mere demonstration of skill. Squiban, like all the
solo instrumentalists can allow himself to use the "tempo rubato", that means
that he's not bound to respect all the durations of every single note, and this
makes it more difficult to understand (and appreciate) every change of time
signature.
Technicalities aside, Molene also features some short and less complex tracks,
like "An Alach" or "An Skoliater", which are a kind of break and prove that
Squiban can impress even with simple things. Throughout the album there is
always the same sound, but this doesn't mean that it is boring or monotonous,
vice versa Molene is quite varied and every piece has its own identity and
style: some pieces seem to be something like some Breton dance and have a strong
folk sound like "Suite de gavottes des montagnes" or "Kost ar Choat" and some
are more jazzy, for example "Variations sur laride a 6 temps" that seems almost
improvised, others lend themselves well to do the soundtrack for a movie, like
"Trugerekat Men Dous".
In conclusion Molene is a superb debut for an underrated genius like Didier
Squiban, a very solid release where each song has a lot of replayability and the
entire album has no weaknesses.
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/66869/Didier-Squiban-Mol%C3%A8ne/
http://www.didier-squiban.net