We had recorded this song back in 2023, and filmed plenty of sequences while travelling around in Sweden last fall, which was both fitting and inspiring. And then… Breton winter happened!
The longest and darkest winter we ever had in Brittany, long days of rain, and heavy dark grey clouds over our heads had quite an impact on our working and creative flow. When Ciarann tempest hit Brittany, on the day of the Celtic New Year, that was a sign, wasn’t it?
Apart from the difficulty of doing anything outdoors, like filming or taking pictures, we also had to deal with a few issues on our house. Leaks on our roof appeared, mostly due to so many rainy days without the natural stone (slate) being able to dry.
Needless to say, that kept us busy! not in the nicest way.
My (Simone here!) personal health also paid its tribute to these harsh conditions, and time for some warm dry sun was much needed.
That’s how we headed to Portugal for a few weeks, and finally find the energy to finalise this video! We hope you’le enjoy it. And we hope at some point, this song could make its way to an album – yes! We’re still debating on how to make the next album.
Wishing you all a nice spring, enjoy the music, enjoy the sun,
Blessings from sunny Brittany!
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
We’re so happy and proud to have again brought into the world a beautiful art project, combining music, painting, mixed media and creative video editing. We filmed it in Brittany and finished the editing during our travel here in Sweden. Take your time to enjoy it, it’s an 8 minutes song, so it’s almost like a short movie 😉 But it will be worth your time, we always deliver what we promise 😉
And when it’s done, please leave us a comment saying what part you most enjoyed, and maybe send the link to a friend!
💎 The song is Ar Venjañs, from our album & book Inês. It’s the revenge of Pedro upon the murderers of his beloved Inês (full lyrics with notes, context and all translations in English and French in the illustrated book Inês, also available in digital format). The rhythm of the music is a traditional gavotte rhythm. http://astrakanproject.bandcamp.com/album/in-s
The lyrics are somewhat unrelated to the video itself – but we liked the energy of the music, we’ll touch on the reasons behind it soon in a short video.
💎 The Return of Mother Earth is an allegory of the resistance at play in Brittany to protect the land from more damage from the industrial agriculture. In next week’s video we’ll give you some elements and context, subscribe to be notified http://www.youtube.com/astrakanproject?sub_confirmation=1
💰 You can use this link to donate, and support our creative projects being brought into the world. http://www.paypal.me/astrakan (you don’t actually need a PayPal account, you simply may enter the amount you feel is right for you and your banking details)
💎 The song is Diougan Gwenc’hlan, the lyrics are found in Barzaz Breizh, a fantastic collection of Breton lyrics collected by Hersart de la Villemarqué and published for the first time in 1838. Gwenc’hlan is a mythical Breton bard from the 6c, he was jailed by a Christian prince, and got his eyes gouged out for refusing to convert to Christianity. In the song, he talks about not being afraid to die, the lyrics (very long lyrics, only a small part is found here) then morph into a prophecy of the revenge that will fall upon the Prince. (Please, subscribe, it’s a fascinating theme, we might edit a full video about Barzaz Breizh + Gwenc’hlan 😉 )
💎 The Lyrics are a composition from Simone. During the collection of the song in the 19c, a melody was written. It’s the one you’ll find on Alan Stivell or Yann-Fanch Kemener versions. We always found it sounded quite like a religious hymn, which was personally a bit disturbing considering Gwenc’hlan’s fate. It was composed in the winter 2023, at Sun set, when tide was rising (see the beginning of the lyrics!🌊), at Roc’h-allaz, a roc that has the same name as the place Gwenc’hlan was said to be living, a beautiful roc overlooking the sea in Tregor. 🌟🌊
💎 The sequences were filmed in Western Brittany at various times of the year
💰 You can use this link to donate, and support our creative projects being brought into the world. http://www.paypal.me/astrakan (you don’t actually need a PayPal account, you simply may enter the amount you feel is right for you and your banking details) 🌞 🌙 ⭐️ 🌟 💫 ✨ 🌜
Music : Simone Alves & Yann Gourvil 💫
Lyrics : Traditional (Barzaz Breizh, La Villemarqué, Brittany)
✨ Video : Simone Alves
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
Many of you already saw it and gave us super nice feedback, for the rest of you, we had been working on this song for a while now, it’s a traditional lullaby from Georgia that we released right before Samhain. Our son was super kind to take part into the video itself – look for the description under the video, there’s plenty about the origine etc…
(please if you have a YouTube user account, like/subscribe/comment, sounds cheesy, but it makes a huge difference on the way our channel and music gets promoted to people that don’t know us yet.)
Simone did an extra video about Samhain/Art/Honouring our ancestors and the meaning of the song to her.
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
Some weeks ago, it came to our minds that we *really* like to play live, and that if it wasn’t happening enough at the moment, as artists we shouldn’t be waiting for it to happen, and rather be creative about it. Aussitôt dit, aussitôt fait, this is how we started this weekly series of short lives, from remote places we love and want to share with you, all while keeping what makes our shows unique. We’re still on the testing phase, and we’re so grateful for the amount of support we’ve already received, and the interest in this project!
We’ll come back to it shortly with a video, but so far, we’re extremely happy and excited about the potential of this new project! We’re aiming for a weekly live, but we’ll be flexible on the day/time, since that will depend on our gigs schedule and weather forecast. ( the best way to stay tuned is to activate the notification mode on our channel)
We’ve created a playlist on our channel for you to follow (next one is tonight at 7.30pm Paris/Berlin time)
#wildlivesongs
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
A short video is on the tube with sequences filmed while we were living in Kyiv in June/July 2020, and we miss Kyiv, we miss Ukraine, we miss travelling. The first part of the tune is from South Brittany, the second half is from Albania/Balkans and is called Loukoum – and we have a longer version of this on stage 😉 The instrument is a Saz/Bağlama and is from Turkey (at least this one is 😉 )
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
The second part of our Samhain / Deiz Kala-Goañv is now live on our channel, we hope you’ll enjoy it, if you do, please leave us a comment under the video, it helps the channel get promoted + subscribe ! And yes, the cover image is really cool !!!
La deuxième partie de notre projet vidéo/peinture pour Deiz Kala-Goañv Samhain cette année est en ligne, on espère que vous aimerez (c’est en anglais, mais il y a les sous-titrages en français), et si c’est le cas, soyez gentils, laissez-nous un petit message sous la vidéo, ça aide la chaîne à gagner en visibilité ! Et sinon, oui, l’image de couverture est carrément cool !
. astrakan project . 