Yann Tiersen shares video for ‘Poull Bojer’, taken from his most electronic album to date
(Photo by Richard Dumas) Electronica wizzard Yann Tiersen has shared a new video for the latest track to be taken from his forthcoming album, “Kerber” – out on Mute on 27 August 2021. He has also announced details of worldwide tour dates, starting later this year in North America with shows in Europe confirmed for 2022.
Directed by Murat Gökmen, the live session video for ‘Poull Bojer’ depicts the interplay between the electronics and the source material on the album, with manipulations of Tiersen beamed back on screens throughout The Eskal studio. The Eskal studio is the studio he built on Ushant (the island where he lives, located 30 kilometres off the West coast of Brittany in the Celtic Sea).
The new album “Kerber” marks a new chapter in the Breton artist’s work, offering his most electronic material to date. On the new album, the piano is the source, “but electronics are the environment that they exist within” so Tiersen explains. “You may get this intuitive thinking of, ‘oh it’s piano stuff’, but actually it’s not. I worked on piano tracks to begin with but that’s not the core of it, they are not important. The context is the most important thing – the piano was a precursor to create something for the electronics to work around.”
After spending the spring writing the piano parts, he went on to spend that summer meticulously creating a sample bank for the Elektron Octatrack using these parts as inspiration, following the chord progressions, playing them on instruments such as the Ondes Martenot, mellotron and harpsichord. These were then subsequently transformed, reshaped and processed. What then followed, with producer Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten), was three weeks of working with electronics, sampling, re-sampling and processing sounds to create an engulfing soundscape where the tender tones of piano keys merge with gently pulsing electronics and an intense ambient milieu.
“Kerber” will be preceded by a book of sheet music on 20 July published by Hal Leonard. The folio will feature all seven pieces presented for solo piano, with preface by Tiersen.
Live concerts
Yann Tiersen is planning a live event to be broadcast worldwide from Ushant and the island is further represented on the graphic artwork by LA-based artist, Katy Ann Gilmore.
But he will also be touring live. Here are the dates.
2021 – North American Tour
- 9 Nov – Los Angeles, CA The Fonda Theatre
- 10 Nov – Berkeley, CA The UC Theatre
- 12 Nov – Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
- 13 Nov – Vancouver, BC Vogue Theatre
- 14 Nov – Seattle, WA Neptune
- 17 Nov – Chicago, IL Metro
- 18 Nov – Detroit, MI Crofoot Ballroom
- 19 Nov – Toronto, ONT Phoenix Concert Hall
- 20 Nov – Montreal, QUE MTelus
- 22 Nov – Quebec City, QC Le Capitole
- 23 Nov – Boston, MA Berklee Performance Center
- 26 Nov – Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
- 27 Nov – Washington, DC 930 Club
2022 – European Tour
- 29 Jan – Stockholm, SE Filadelfia
- 30 Jan – Gothenburg, SE Tradgarn
- 31 Jan – Copenhagen, DK Opera House
- 1 Feb – Malmo SE Concert House
- 2 Feb – Hamburg, DE, Laeizhalle
- 4 Feb – Berlin, DE Tempodrom
- 7 Feb – Milan, IT Teatro degli Arcimboldi
- 9 Feb – Dusseldorf, DE Tonhalle
- 10 Feb – Brussels, BE Cirque Royale
- 12 Feb – London, UK Roundhouse
- 14 Feb – Glasgow, UK Royal Concert Hall
- 15 Feb – Manchester, UK Bridgewater Hall
- 18 Feb – Roubaix (near Lille), FR Le Colisee
- 19 Feb – Strasbourg, FR La Laiterie
- 20 Feb – Dijon, FR La Vapeur
- 22 Feb – Montpellier, FR Le Corum
- 23 Feb – Toulouse, FR Le Bikini
- 24 Feb – Biarritz, FR La Gare du Midi
- 25 Feb – Bordeaux, FR Krakatoa
- 26 Feb – La Rochelle, FR La Sirene
- 28 Feb – Tours, FR Le Grand Theatre
- 1 March – Clermont-Ferrand, FR Cooperative de Mai
- 2 March- Rouen, FR Le 106
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