Video

Blog, Musicians' Diary, Sound & Video

On the (music) road. A long (emotional) road.


We’ve arrived in Greece after 2 weeks travel across the Balkan region (mostly Serbia and North Macedonia) that we miss so much. It had been 2 years since we hadn’t been around, and it really feels like we’re reunited with an ambiance that is deeply part of who we are – or rather have become.

 

We are very happy we had the plan to travel once the album would be released. We did some little promo before our departure, and thanks to the Internet (and easy cheap sim cards!), we can easily manage the rest of it for when we’ll be back to France early November.

Our happiness comes also from a more relaxed way from our behalf to deal with the album release. It’s a true fact that with the experience, we get better at it. And I’m not necessarily referring to the contacts, or the sequence of what needs to be done. That’s the easiest part in a way.

I’m here rather referring to the emotional part of the release, how having a limited audience in a niche style affects what we can do at release time. Basically, despite of the nice support we got during the crowdfunding campaign, we didn’t have huge crowds waiting for Inês album. Also, we got amazing feedback from some media, but also plenty of no replies from radios we’ve worked with previously. From people too. Some sales in the first week, though nothing exceptional.

Honestly, it can be an artist’heart’s killer! But as I said, we now plan for it, and planning for what we most love in the world *travelling* certainly smooths all the mixed feelings we experience. And don’t get us wrong! We do enjoy every bit of this amazing project, all is part of the game, it’s just music after-all, isn’t it? And as years pass by we do improve at staying motivated and grateful no matter what.

http://www.astrakanproject.bandcamp.com/album/in-s

§ Simone.

 

 

 

Blog, Musicians' Diary, Sound & Video

Inês is out for good!


We are so – so – so happy that it’s all falling into place! The books have arrived and their colour are brilliant! They reflect very much what I had in mind when I envisioned Inês album. It’s also a personal relief that all went well, after all it’s our first book edited ever, and editing so many pages (96) in full colour with a lot of pictures (that’s the least one can say) was quite a challenge! Doesn’t it look gorgeous?

Only one place to get it: http://astrakanproject.bandcamp.com/album/in-s

We’ll try to take decent pictures from the book tomorrow, and talk a bit more of the final rush… but you still can enjoy the music in the meantime.

Blog, Sound & Video

The Tale of the Coffee Mug [video]


The Tale of the Coffee Mug that set itself free. A true story, inspired by our road trip, our love for travel and freedom, and with a music initially planned for next album Inês.
And obsiosly driven by Yann’s legendary passion for coffee !
(sorry, wordpress seems not to want to integrate our video today, you’ll have to follow the link, but it worths it! We promise, the music is beautiful ! Click the pic ! )
The Tale of the Coffee Mug - van life
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Video script & edit : Simone Alves
Music : Yann Gourvil & traditional from Brittany
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Support our music and future projects! Stream/share/buy/gift our music :
Or visit Simone’s Art shop : https://www.etsy.com/no-en/shop/RosaBorboniana

 

Blog, Sound & Video

Road trip + street art + music all in one!


#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

 

Song from album B http://astrakanproject.bandcamp.com/album/astrakan-project-b
Artwork project #shamanstick & video edit by Simone Alves 2017
Music “En anv Doue ma Mamm”
Lyrics & music base: traditional, Brittany
Arrang : Astrakan Project
© & ® simone alves & yann gourvil 2014

Roadtrip Be+Nl+Dk+Sv april 2017

Sound & Video

Sell ouzh ar Stered [ look at the Stars ]


Today is the Celtic celebration of Beltan, and was the perfect day to release our video from our song Sell ouzh ar Stered…

Since the shooting in London, there was a lot of work to bring Simone’s painting to life and create this story, we’re totally over the moon (!) by such a nice adventure! And as any adventure, full of doubts, delay, creativity, team work… We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did!

 

Download this song: http://tinyurl.com/stered

Credits
Sell ouzh ar Stered / Look at the Stars
Director: Anton Short
Cinematography: Daniel Zafer
Vocals: Simone Alves
Ud/violin/prog: Yann Gourvil

Studio version:
Nea Peramos / Plougras / 2014
© & ® simone alves & yann gourvil

Musicians' Diary

The Final countdown!


Hello,

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).

fleurs de lotus video

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

 

Sound & Video

Some acoustic music?


1932 is one of our favorite songs to play live on radio shows, and not only because it’s shorter than the usual 5 minutes long songs we tend to have! It’s cool it got video recorded last Sunday in Paris…

Folk a Lier Astrakan Project Radio Libertaire

Folk a Lier Astrakan Project Radio Libertaire

Sound & Video

La Jotinette – help us win a little contest!


“La Jotinette” is the name of a tune from Central France (the name of the dance is bourrée nivernaise). We entered a little contest on facebook, and proposed our version with a little video. Music-wise it kind of sounds… well, probably more Breton than from real central France!

For the video, I used dances from Greece (a lot of Zeybekiko but not only), from Turkey (including some Zeybek by Atatürk!), from Galicia and of course from Central France.

 

To support us, like the original post on the Facebook page here (only “like” the post, not the actual YouTube video – although you also may!)

http://www.facebook.com/Lajotinette/posts/1529391333997356

We really really had a lot of fun putting the music and video together, we hope you’ll like it and support our version, because we want to go there to get our prize (a special smoked ham!), that would be a perfect excuse to meet musicians from there… and maybe make a jam session around “La Jotinette”!

§ Simone

Musicians' Diary, Sound & Video

Sales VS Creativity


It’s always about the same. We released last album 2 months ago, we’re still in the middle of promoting, and actually we should even be doing more in that direction – by more, I mean do more follow up, check if it has been received, if it will be published/played/reviewed.

I should also put more effort on putting together next gigs & tour. Not that I’m not putting any effort, but basically I should be spending more than half of my days on the phone. But guess what? It’s not my thing. Neither Yann’s.

And things got worst when we get ideas for new songs coming in and chasing us even at night! Not big projects as such, not planned for any album (but who knows?), but mostly side-projects that we’d love to work on, just to see what happens, just to experiment and have fun. And well, since last January 2014 when we started to work on the album, we got a lot of these “let’s take a note and come back to it after the album’s release”.

In other words, I don’t know how that happen, but we already have loads of work in progress!

In the meantime, I pushing myself hard to keep on trying to get new gigs, it’s probably a matter of balance… but I love so much more to bring new ideas to life!

§ Simone