#shamanstick is a land & street art project around “En Anv Doue ma Mamm” is which we combined most of our passions: music, visual arts, video making, road trip and Breton language. PdF with artwork HR pics will be coming soon!
This adventure is being quite fulfilling, and we have many ideas for our next travels!
Be among the first to get info about our projects and releases by subscribing to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/vhBnn
#shamanstick is a land & street art project around “En Anv Doue ma Mamm” is which we combined most of our passions: music, visual arts, video making, road trip and Breton language. Full video will be out (very!) soon.
You can hear the full song here:
And you too can be among the first to get info about our projects and releases by subscribing to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/vhBnn (sent about 3 times a year)
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
It’s been a long time since we haven’t blogged. Not that we didn’t have anything to tell about. We may even have had so much to tell about that it could somehow have been overwhelming… Lot’s of uncertainties, of projects, ideas, dreams that had been on hold for months and that we weren’t sure we could bring to fruition.
Since we returned last month from our last UK tour, we’be been super active in many direction, and we finally can announce it…. next video will be released for Beltane (the night of the 1st of May).
We’re in the very final stage of editing the video. It’s the first time we get to work with a video director (except for live videos, but it’s quite different), and we are very lucky to be working with a very talented person, that not only was able to direct the performance shooting, but also is animating some of my drawings. And it’s incredible to see them coming to life!
Tour-wise, we’ve been booking for Germany, Luxembourg and Austria for next winter and fall (keep an eye at this section), not much towards the UK, but this should be done shortly too.
All for now!
§ Simone
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
Last June when we played in Belsele at ‘t Ey (Belgium), Dirk from the very nice team hosting us that night played this Flemish song that we then heard for the first time,on the piano… the moment was magical! And we both thought once we’d have some time we would try to work on a version of ours. Moreover the song from Wannes Van de Velde is about Pieter Brughel (the XVI° painter, that painted The Tower of Babel) and his dilemma and understanding of how due to political changes, from Spanish language people in Flanders had switched to French when his own language was Flemish.
This is the original version we worked from – pronunciation is so clear and detached despite of the speed space! It has been a challenging exercise to find the balance between some Flemish-Antwerp sounds and the way I normally would pronounce it in Dutch – that is: with an obvious French flavour!
The Tower of Babel, the famous painting from Pieter Breughel relates to the biblical story about misunderstanding between humans caused by different languages. For us it relates to the awesome richness of humanity, and more than other things reminds us of our stay in South-East of Turkey, in the areas of Mardin and Diyarbakir and to a certain extend in Lebanon. What we most loved was the blurred border between human groups. You can’t easily tell who belongs to which group, based on what? religion? language? accent? race??? Surprisingly and in its own way, Diyarbakir was much more cosmopolitan than Istanbul. Our plan for after the album’s release was actually to go back and cross the border to Northern Iraq, which sadly is at the moment totally impossible. Sadly also we see how this rich mixture of cultures is dying in one of the most important areas for our cultures.
For those who wonder, we both speak some reasonable Dutch since we lived in The Netherlands for a while but…. a loooooong time ago!
For the release of our album B, we have created some cool bundles…
They are 9 of these bundles specially made for Art and Astrakan lovers, each with a little original artwork created for the album booklet, which means, each of them is unique, and it’s of course a super limited edition that will each include:
The album of course!
A link to download the full album
One of the last copies available of or EP Torkad – Kofrig ar Sorserez… released in 2005! 100% acoustic, and it includes the very first version of “Sell ouzh ar Stered” (with different lyrics Adam hag Eva)
An original piece of artwork used to create the album booklet. Sizes differ a bit (and price also because it depends on the postage costs). They are all on very good quality watercolour paper and include various styles of mixed-media depending on each piece. (pleased note that it isn’t framed to keep the cost of postage reasonable)
Some personal notes regarding the song linked with the art-work and hand-written lyrics
A post-card with some of Simone’s Artwork print
Shipping anywhere in the world + nice and safe packaging
Here they are…
1 – Sell ouzh ar Stered (Look at the Stars)
Sell ouzh ar Stered (Look at The Stars) Approx size 15.5*15.3 cm (6.10*6 in)
Sorry… already sold !
2 – En Anv Doue ma Mamm
En Anv Doue ma Mamm – approx size 15*16.5 cm (5.90*6.5 in)
Bundle price : 45€
3 – Gwerz Inês
Gwerz Inês – approx size 21.5*21 cm (8.46*8.25 in)
Bundle price : 55€
4 – Sekrejoù ar C’Hloareg
Sekrejoù ar c’hloareg – approx size 15*15.5 cm ( 5.90*6.10 in)
Sorry… already sold !
5 – Gwerz an Yougoslavi
Gwerz an Yougoslavi Approx size 14.5*15 cm ( 5.7*5.9 in )
Bundle price : 45€
6 – Seizh Bloaz
Seizh Bloaz – approx size 15*15.2 cm (5.90*6 in)
Bundle price : 45€
7- My beloved has died
My beloved has died – approx size 15*15.2 cm (5.90*6 in)
Bundle price : 45€
8 – Ar c’hased Arc’hant
Ar c’hased arc’hant – approx size 15*15.2 cm (5.90*6 in)
Bundle price : 45€
9 – Ar Plac’h Yaouank ag an Oriant
Ar plac’h yaouank ag an Oriant – approx size 15.5*14.8 cm ( 6.10*5.8 in)
Bundle price : 45€
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
Our album is right now being manufactured, it’s a big achievement already! We still have a lot to do, but we can be more relax since the first big deadline is over (and we made it! 🙂 ) And since we were so busy last week, here’s a sneak-pick on how we created the album cover.
Our music too is pretty much also about “sacrificing” ancient (and beautiful) a-capela songs to turn them into new pieces. Sometimes we barely dare to. For some tunes, including some on next album, we waited for years before we dared to. Not by fear really. But because it’s sometimes hard to transform a song into a new tune that will at least compete with the original version.
§ Simone
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
What? Gesso is a primer used to coat canvasses or paper before painting, especially loved and treasured by artists that love multiple layers and materials as well as heavy textures. Well… like me! I love gesso. And I still don’t know how I run out of my precious primer, (well, no, not completely, I still have some black gesso 😉 ) , and not only I run out of gesso, but also I haven’t found so far any art-shop in my area in Greece (around Kavala, if you happened to be reading and know one, please! Don’t let me down, leave me a comment!).
Not only did I run out of gesso, but I’m painting for next album cover (ho, here comes the album!), so, what can I do?
So what else than go back to the old Do It Yourself method. Yes. Again. I found an easy recipe here. Basically baby powder+white glue+water. I chose to add some very white paint. I’ll wait until tomorrow to allow it to settle.
I sometimes wonder if I haven’t been cursed for really needing again and again to find last minutes creative solutions. Do I really wish things would be different? Noooooo ! 😉
§ Simone
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
Last Astrakan Project album (2012) was the first album ever I used my art work for. With the exception of Yann’s portrait, I did not specifically create the paintings for the album, but once they were finished (they were created between March and June 2012 whilst the album was to be released in September), there was absolutely no doubt in our minds they belonged to the album.
For our upcoming album, I had no idea so far. Absolutely zero! I even hadn’t been drawing much lately because I kind of wanted to get first an idea of what to paint… for the album!
Ha ha ha! Inspiration just doesn’t seem to work for me that way! Last week-end I started to doodle inspired by Shamanistic Sami drums from northern Scandinavia, like this one:
Prob. 17-18th C. Norwegian Sami People Drum. During rituals a ring was moved around on the drum membrane. Predictions and conclusions were made based on rune itself and the path that the ring took in selecting it.
Iloved the very stylish way animals and people get depicted, but above all the way they depict a world, they tell a story that you can follow. And I kind of got inspired… So inspired that
While composing music we often get into the same inspiration process, if we try to pull it too hard, nothing really happens, when we let go off the pressure about “this needs to be done”, then only ideas start to flow.
Truth is, most brilliant ideas aren’t really ours…
…best ideas come to us – if we allow them to.
Back to painting!
§Simone
Your friends might thank you for letting them know about our music !
