WAR HENT YOUENN GWERNIG

Following in the footsteps of artists such as Gilles Servat, Patrick Ewen or Serge Kerguiduff, he quickly imposed himself on the Breton scene with his Canadian lumberjack look.
Just back from New York, where he had been exiled with his wife and children for a dozen years, he was one of those who hosted the epic evenings at the manor of Menez-Kamm in Spézet (Brittany).
At the beginning of the 1970s, he participated through singing and writing in the social and cultural struggles that were so rich and diverse at that time.
During his years of exile in the United States, he had written many poems and texts in Breton, English and French, three languages he spoke. And it was precisely with some of these poems and songs written afterwards that he performed on so many Breton stages, alongside his own family and a few musicians.
He then took part in the Breton revolt. He is part of all the great social and cultural movements.
It is to retrace the life of this great man that Goulc'han Kervella and the theatre company Strollad Ar Vro Bagan wrote and staged a play that is as musical as it is acted. The play is based on Youenn Gwernig's texts, interviews and testimonies of people who knew him, in particular his eldest daughter Annaïg, who unfortunately also disappeared two years ago.
Assisted by half a dozen singers and musicians (Tangi Le Gall-Carré, Erwan Moal, Julien Stévenin, Typhaine Corre, Tangi Merrien and Erwan Billant), the actors of Ar Vro Bagan staged part of the work of this now "monument" of Breton culture.
The present album features some of Youenn's most beautiful songs. Let us quote in bulk Gwez in homage to his life as a woodcarver, Gwerz An Harluad and Identity on his American exile, Emvod, his friendship with Jack Kerouac, Tuchenn Mikël and Gwerz Ti-Voujeret during his return to the land of his ancestors, the very sensitive Me 'garfe as well as N'am eus netra, without forgetting his "hit" E-kreiz an noz.
The album as a whole is magnificent and some will find in it with nostalgia all that Youenn Gwernig was. His work and his life, steeped in humanist and universal values, perfectly illustrate this Breton identity open to the world.

Paker Prod PROD 032 - www.pakerprod.bzh