Search - Gwenael Kerleo :: Chemin De Brume

Gwenael Kerleo is a young harper-composer from Brittany, a Celtic region in western France. Her playing harks back to Alan Stivell's groundbreaking Renaissance de la Harpe Celtique and the neo-Bardic posturings of Myrdhin. She composes her own tunes but is not experimentally inclined or noticeably attracted to Brittany's large and delightful store of dance tunes. She prefers a more delicate, wistful sound, and her perfectly tempered harp solos are echoed by an unobtrusive acoustic ensemble of flutes and double reeds, guitar, bagpipes, squeezebox, and percussion. Kerleo's occasional wordless soprano improvisations recall age-old myths of mermaids, selkies, and sirens, their bewitching voices barely hidden beneath the howling wind. The title translates to "Misty Waves" and the seagoing history and wild coastline of the Breton homeland are felt and heard in a variety of guises throughout the album. --Christina Roden