BAGAD KEMPER
Kas
Philippe Cousin
Two years after Nerzh recorded with the Breton band Red Cardell, the most successful but also the most rocking bagad in Brittany, the Bagad Kemper returns with its thirtieth album, Kas, an album that, as its name suggests, "sends" and also "transmits" tradition.
After two years of preparation, due among other things to the pandemic and various lockdowns, the bagad has chosen to return to the emblematic songs of the last ten years, with the help of some long-time accomplices: Jean-Pierre Riou, Dan Ar Braz, Marthe Vassalo, Sylvain Girault, Tibo Niobé, Erwan Volant and Bernard Le Dréau.
An album of introspection in a way, on which Bagad Kemper reserves a special place for songs with Ar Charlezenn, La Tribu Bleue des Airs, Breizh, Le Tour du Miroir, Ar Plac'h Iferniet and Ar Milouer Argant and the voices of Jean-Pierre, Marthe and Sylvain.
Eight titles taken from their repertoire of the past decade. Of note is the title La Tribu Bleue des Airs, from their 2016 show, Melezour, which takes an ironic look at the Bagad itself through a text written by S. Girault.
Presented in a superb and very original cover, a 16-page booklet is an opportunity for the artists who have accompanied them for so many years to share their experience with the Bagad family.
Kenavo l'Artiste is a small tribute to Erwan Poder, the drummer who passed away a few months ago.
An energetic album that ends with the Suite they presented in Lorient in 2017 - Ridérobée.
This is an album that is very much in the image of Bagad Kemper, festive and powerful, which happily mixes tradition and modernity, the hallmark of the Quimper-based band, in a process of transmission.