10/10
Kevin Le Pennec, harp.
Self-released, 2023.
Beton singer, harpist and songwriter Kevin Le Pennec nails it in his first solo album, À distance. Presented with joyful exuberance and exacting stylistic tradition, this gorgeous set of both traditional Breton and Irish tunes plus original compositions leans into pop and jazz with audaciousness and poise.
At the outset, Le Pennec boldly reaches across the Celtic Sea and his roots, grabbing our attention by flattening a few notes as he introduces two Irish jigs and a song, La pie et la couturière (The magpie and the dressmaker) / The Battering Ram / The Lark on the Strand. The ease with which he accentuates the rocking syncopation in the bass will make you fall for this Breton bard.
The title track is an original that challenges us with the longing and challenge of relationships with loved ones from a distance. Le Pennec’s voice contains that gravelly and intense quality of French folk singers, at once confident, yet unafraid to be vulnerable. Couple that with a loose-limbed drive and you have an irresistible combination—much the same irresistibility as those long distance connections.
In the traditional Breton song Fleur d’Orange (Orange flower) Le Pennec imagines the guitar-like West African kora as the accompaniment to this haunting story of a kidnapped maiden. His arrangement is creative, varied, and follows the vocal line exquisitely.
Perhaps that’s what makes this album so alluring, the facility he has in expressing simple melodies with such uniqueness. Le Pennec’s jaunty Breton gavottes speak to this point as they reveal a mastery of the instrument, the style and his own artistic voice. Likewise, two suites from Brittany and Ireland successively, offer up the contrasting yet related genres with jazzy punctuations and bravura riffs.
Les sept anneaux (The seven rings) was born of a travel snafu that left Le Pennec angry and looking for an outlet and a means to move forward after crushing disappointment. Who of us has been spared that life ritual? In another song that’s tinged with sorrow and tragedy, Le Pennec explores mixed meter quite unlike traditional Breton fare but in a purposeful way to tell a story of an unlikely event in this maritime region of Le marinier qui n’aimait pas l’eau (The sailor who didn’t like water).
A favorite, and perhaps the most illustrative of Le Pennec’s passion, is the mesmerizing Sous la feuille du bois (Under the leaf of the wood). In his arrangement, he establishes rhythmic and melodic loops tinged with pop colors. The bass lines blossom as the upper voice colors the warmth of his voice. You forget for a moment that it’s one performer creating this kaleidoscope of sound.
À distance is more than the sum of its parts, pushing the themes of folk music, folk harp, and folk singing into new sound territories. You’ll never tire of the place Kevin Le Pennec will take you.
