Esharêh – The Music of Brittany

 
    Esharêh is music group that plays the music of Brittany, a region in the NorthWest of France which appears to have a culture distinct from the cultural traditions that France is popularly known for.

     The music of Brittany is also distinctive. And the group Esharêh treated us, the audience at the Alliance Francaise organised concert, to the traditional, and the folk and dance music of Brittany.
     Esharêh as it was, even before coming to India, was a non-traditional group, having in its line-up a Vocalist, Simon Dégremont, who also played guitar; Julien Lahaye who played the Zarb and Daf, and this is where the Persian connection comes in - both the Zarb and Daf are Persian percussion instruments. The Zarb is a goblet shaped Drum that Julien Lahaye placed sideways across his lap and drummed on the drum head with his fingers. The Daff was a giant tambourine that was struck with the palm of the hand so the metal jingles, jangled. The third instrumentalist was Matthias Labbe, on Tablas and Mridangam. These were the personnel of Esharêh that came to India, and here they met up with two Indian instrumentalists, Hindustani classical, Bansuri player, Vishal Vardhan, and Hindustani classical, Sarod player, Sougata Roy Chowdhury, who will continue with and as the Esharêh ensemble on their further travels around the world.

     The appearance: Though the first trio Esharêh were Frenchmen, the tabla player wore Pajama Kurta and the Zarb player wore what looked like Persian clothes, like a Kurta. And the singer wore a suit without a tie. All of them were barefoot. And except for the singer, they all sat down to play their instruments. The Sarod player and Bansuri player were attired as all Hindustani Classical musicians usually are.

     The music: The music that Esharêh played was unlike anything I had heard before. The language of this predominantly vocal music did not sound like French, it was probably Breton. The singer, Simon Dégremont, who appeared to be the musical leader of the group, was a virtuoso with a rich, mellifluous and dexterous voice. The songs he sang were love songs, ballads, folk songs, and songs for dance; the vocalisation was sometimes rapid and syncopated, with unusually placed rhythmic accents and stresses, sometimes lyrical and folksy; sometimes smooth and sometimes punctuated with piercing cries. The music this ensemble created seemed to draw from old traditions but yet had influences from all over the world.  

     The songs were all arranged for ensemble playing, with equal contributions from all musicians who accompanied the singer and sometimes took the melodic lead and did the fillers between verses and chorus – the repeated part of the song.  Since the Bansuri and Sarod were melody instruments, their parts were carefully arranged and the melodic interludes on these instruments were carefully set to sound as if they were the most natural instruments for this kind of music.  And there was never a discordant note or sound that was out of place in any of the songs, which speaks very highly for the skill and artistry of the Bansuri player, Vishal Vardhan, and the Sarod player, Sougata Roy Chowdhury, for blending in and sounding as a completely harmonious unit in this very alien music. 

     Even though the music of Brittany was unfamiliar  and played by an unsusual ensemble of instruments and instrumentalists, one could still tell which song was a folk song, and which was a ballad, and which was a traditional song. They sounded that authentic.

     And all of this music by the Esharêh ensemble, though sounding authentic and well arranged and well rehearsed, had unusual or unconventional rhythms that were surely influenced by Indian music, because they seemed to follow ‘rhythm cycles’, instead of fixed time signatures common to European or Western music. And the tabla player, Matthias Labbe, was completely at home on his instrument and was a master of the rhythm cycle, and so was Julien Lahaye, who played some unusual beats on his Zarb, which had a distinct sound, but was very compatible with the tabla rhythms and the music of the ensemble. And what was very noticeable, was how much the musicians respected each others’ musicianship and enjoyed each others’ playing.

     At the end of the evening, and after two encores of music that energised and elevated all of us, the audience departed with great admiration for this ensemble of outstanding musicians and for the opportunity to listen to this unusual music.                                                                     

for Alliance Francaise website