We both love Albanian music (with a slight crush for music from Kosovo !), and we were really happy to hear some live a couple of days ago here in Greece !
The sound is indeed terrific, it’s recorded live for sure, and with all the usual ambiance going around in this kind of concert : discussions (if you pay attention you may hear both Greek and Albanian language around us), laughs, dances, phones ringing, glasses and bottles noises… well, basically the only ambiance in which we have ever heard Albanian music !
Yesterday I dreamt there was a Horse on stage with us while on stage in Belgium! And actually, it was there any-time we were playing somewhere, just there, apparently playing no instrument, but it was of great matter that it would be there.
In Celtic traditions the Horse is a symbol of Strength, Will, Power, Speed and Endurance. It’s usually associated with very powerful Goddesses like Epona or Rhiannon (Welsh Goddess). It’s a companion for travels and more specifically for travels to the Other World (one of Epona’s role is indeed to carry the Dead’ souls to the Other World)… which makes it quite a good sign for Astrakan Project, doesn’t it?
May we have many more travels!
§ Simone
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Physically we are lucky enough to spend a lot of time now both in Greece and in Brittany, but on the web, here are a couple of places you may find us – and on which you may also connect with us on a regular basis. But first… just tell us which are your favourite ways to stay in touch with music you like?
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And in any case, here are the links to the ones we’re using regularly + some insight on what you may find on each of them …
YouTube Channel : the main & most important place (beside our web-site of course)! We post regular music videos from album tracks, also from rehearsals, alternative acoustic versions, work in progress, promo-videos, teasers and also Vlogs with up-dates about our plans and projects (well… bla-bla-bla videos from Simone!). If you’re a regular user and do have an account, then yeah to you: you can subscribe to our channel!
Facebook: You may like our official Page (and by the way, wu just got over the 500 fans milestione 🙂 ) or request any (or both!) of us for more interaction: Simone & Yann
Instagram, we both share some pictures from rehearsals and behind the scenes, from travels also, Yann will also share many Coffee pictures (user name @gwadmoch) & Simone some Art-Work ones (user name @rosaborboniana)
Soundcloud. This is what we like to use it more specifically to share work in progress, we’ll share it here also, but if you have a soundcloud account, feel free to follow us:
The podcast from our interview at RTBF in Belgium… but it’s in French!
Enfin quelque chose à me mettre dans l’oreille pour les francophones, le podcast de l’interview de Simone sur la première de la RTBF lors de notre passage en Belgique
In the RTBF studio
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Actally, updating / upgrading the home-made footswitch, that I made a couple of years ago… (see previous posts there and there…). I use this footswitch to control my looping software “Live” on stage, since my hands are generally busy with a stringed instrument ! I must say that as far as I know, this kind of USB hardware doesn’t exist !
As I wanted to get a more reliable hardware, and also more compact so that I can fit in my suitcase… So I started from a cheap USB keyboard…
After finding the suitable combinations of connectors (i.e. keys, actually), let’s design the stuff with a nice and clear sketch…
Then time has come for soldering…
The tricky part, soldering on the keyboard core :
Yes, this is a hard work :))
And after many tests and controls, the final result :
§Yann
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Brittany is well know among folk lovers to have a great variety of traditional dances. And indeed, they are quite a variety of those dances. Although most of them have specific names nowadays, some decades ago they would mostly be referred to as “circle dance”. Mostly “Dañs Tro” (for all the variations on the gavotte) and “An-Dro” (in the Vannes area). Because of Breton grammar, Tro and Dro are indeed the same word, first letter change is a typical marker of Celtic languages. But they mean “circle”. And every area would mostly only dance one kind of dance. Their dance. The one from their community, or we could even say, the one that would make them belong to their community.
In our area, we mostly dance gavotte. In remote villages, there is no problem playing 2 complete sets of gavotte in a row (a complete set is about 15, 20 min). We almost consider that other dances, from other parts of the province are more like… fun! We like them, we like to dance them, we enjoy them. We even try to play them. But gavotte is ours. It is part of who we are.
I always had the feeling that dancing was and still is for some people more than a show, or something to be good at. It is just something to get together. To feel you are united. To feel you are part of “that” circle. This is what Within the Circle is about.
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Within the Circle, you don’t look outside, you’re not there to show off. You can just be yourself.
§ Simone
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When I started learning traditional songs from Brittany, I did like many singers from my generation did: I dove into the old recordings made from great Breton singers. At that time (from the 50’s on I would say, but a lot in the late 60’s until the 80’s), among the few people concerned by this wonderful culture, a few started to visit old singers at home to record them, some because they knew great songs, others because they had a nice voice, or a good sense of rhythm. Not all of them had been known as singers. The common points between all these recording is that most of them were made on private equipment (and even later on tape recorder) and also most of them were recorded in the kitchen.
Here’s a sample of the great singer José Bertrand (also known as “Madame Bertrand” or “Marie-José Bertrand”)
In many cultures, the kitchen is the heart of the house, the place where you gather to sing songs or tell stories. In Brittany it used to be so at the fireplace. Then although most of fireplaces had disappeared, been replaced by ceramics on the walls (hence the unique sound of kitchen recordings!) and electrical stove, it is still the place you get to discuss, drink bowls of coffee (no, no mug or cup, only bowls!), eat pancakes and butter cakes…
When trying new things or just discussing new songs, we cannot help but do it in the kitchen! Here’s some trial for next album (please, do notice our kitchen’ acoustic and natural reverb!)
We do have a special room for “serious” recording sessions, with silent acoustic, with a door that closes. But even on our first album, they are some tracks in which we never managed to bring as much spirit as on the first dirty kitchen trial. So, somewhere, hidden in the reverb, delays and effects, you still have the “kitchen spirit“!
§ Simone
PS: a recent recording with the most iconic songs from Madame Bertrand has been released (with improved sound!) (image links to Amazon)
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We didn’t even know it existed, but it does! A method for English speakers to learn Breton language!
We haven’t tried or even seen it, if anyone has any feedback, we’ll share it around most definitely. >Here is an Amazon link<, it’s even cheap (about 20€):
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. astrakan project . 