Denez Prigent

Denez Prigent (; born 17 February 1966 in Santec, Finistère) is a Breton folk singer-songwriter of the gwerz and kan ha diskan styles of Breton music. From his debut at the age of 16, he was known for singing traditional songs a cappella, and has moved on to singing his own songs with techno music accompaniments. He has performed in France as well as internationally and has recorded seven studio and two live albums.

Biography

Childhood and early career

During his childhood, Prigent lived with his father in Le Relecq-Kerhuon and spent his weekends at his grandmother's, in Santec.

His father, a primary teacher, raised him speaking French, although he spoke Breton fluently, because he did not see the point in teaching Breton to his son. Denez thus discovered the Breton language at his grandmother's, along with its natural harmony and the tendency of Breton speakers of that time to sing written or improvised songs.

While in secondary in Brest he preferred listening to Breton songs on his portable audio player than concentrating on his studies.

At age 14, Prigent was taught kan ha diskan by Alain Leclère, himself a former student of Manuel Kerjean, whose other students include Érik Marchand.

Two years later, in 1982, he sang with Alain Leclère in festoù-noz. In the Kan ar Bobl, he won the first prize in kan ha diskan in 1987, the first prize in new singing in 1988 and the first prize in traditional singing in 1990. such as the ' (Nightfalls) and the Festival Interceltique de Lorient.

In 1991, the city of Rennes invited him to participate in the "Voice of Asia" festival due to take place in its newly twinned city of Alma Ata, Kazakhstan. Surprised by this invitation, Prigent wrote a satirical song, "Son Alma Ata" (later included on Sarac'h) about the incongruity for a Breton singer to be sent to perform in Kazakhstan. This first concert abroad gave him an opportunity to discover the Kazakh people, then integrated into the Soviet Union, and compare its situation to that of the Breton people, integrated into France.

In 1991, Prigent resigned from his teaching position in order to pursue his artistic career.

The goal of this project of Éric Mouquet, a member of Deep Forest, and Guilain Joncheray is to treat Breton music in the same way that Deep Forest treated African music, with traditional lyrics and electronic accompaniments. Michel Sanchez, the other member of Deep Forest, also worked on the album, recorded and mixed by Erwin Autrique. Breton singers Arnaud Maisonneuve and Manu Lann Huel also appear on the album, as well as Tri Yann. It is Prigent's first experience combining Breton lyrics and electronic music.

right|thumb|upright|[[Quimper Cathedral, one of the stops of Tro Breizh.]]

Prigent released his second album, Me 'zalc'h ennon ur fulenn aour (I keep in myself a golden spark), in 1997. He wrote all the lyrics except for the traditional song Ar rannoù that appears in the Barzaz Breiz, and most of the musics, using both traditional instruments and electronic sounds. The subjects of the lyrics are the classical topics of gwerz : injustice, disease, death. E trouz ar gêr, about the artificial aspects of living in a city, and An hentoù adkavet, about the revival of the Tro Breizh, are his first songs devoted to Brittany, its culture and its relation to nature.

To select electronic samples, Prigent contacted Arnaud Rebotini, who granted him access to his collection of discs.

Although the extreme difference between his a cappella songs and his new tracks using electronic samples received mixed reviews, Prigent considered that he remained faithful to the arrhythmic, unmeasured aspect of Breton music.

With this album, Prigent also affirms his writing style. His verses are mostly octosyllables with, generally, a median caesura. This type of verse is very frequent in Breton, since short words are common, and thus long verses unneeded. He only writes in Breton, a language that, according to Prigent, kept its sacred aspect, The main invited musicians are the jazzman Louis Sclavis, the viellist Valentin Clastrier, and the uilleann piper Davy Spillane.

For the first time, French lyrics appear on one of Prigent's albums. They are told by Bertrand Cantat on Daouzek huñvre, whose structure is reminiscent of the twelve series of Ar rannoù. The other voice that can be heard on this album is that of Lisa Gerrard, the singer of Dead Can Dance, on Gortoz a ran (I await). This song, the first one in the album, is part of the soundtrack of Black Hawk Down, a film directed by Ridley Scott. Gortoz a ran has garnered recent attention (2016) after being featured in the American adult animated sitcom South Park during the second episode of season 20: 'Skank Hunt.'

Another guest, the Bagad Kemper, performs with Denez Prigent on E trouz ar gêr and Ar sonerien du, a gwerz about the legend of the dark sonneurs, a couple of sonneurs (biniou and bombard) which the gendarmes arrested, mistaking them for thieves for whom they were looking.

Both were hanged and buried in Pont-l'Abbé before their innocence was established. Their graves are, to this day, a location of pilgrimage.

In Denez Prigent's version of the legend, the gendarmes kill and hang the musicians in order not to admit to having let the real thieves escape, also insisting on the reputation of debauchery which the conformists gave, at the time, to festive music.

This album was nominated for the Victoires de la Musique in 2001.

After a series of concerts, Prigent recorded a live album, Live Holl a-gevret !, during the Festival interceltique de Lorient in August 2001, guest-starring the bagad Roñsed-Mor of Locoal-Mendon.

Sarac'h (2003)

left|thumb|The urban setting of Rennes, which Denez Prigent sought to leave.

The next album, Sarac'h (rustle), was released in 2003. Lisa Gerrard is again invited, as is Yanka Rupkina, the soloist of the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, Karen Matheson of Capercaillie, and the Sami singer Mari Boine. Also appearing are the Dónal Lunny on the bouzouki, Nabil Khalidi on the oud, and Farhad Bouallagi on the violin. Although this album uses electronic sounds, the music is mostly performed on traditional instruments.

The album begins with two traditional songs : An hini a garan, with Lisa Gerrard, and E garnison !, with Louise Ebrel, who had already toured with Prigent.

He then rediscovered the silence of nature, with the rustle of the wind in the trees in the background. He drew from that the impression, from which he writes the song, that modernisation cuts people from nature and encourages them to stay alone behind their screens. the Paléo Festival Nyon (Switzerland), the Rozrywki Theater in Poland, the Stimmen Festival (Germany), the antique Roman Theater in Vienna and the theater of Tenerife (Canary Islands). In Paris, he performed at the Stade de France for Saint Patrick's Day, in Bercy Arena, the Bataclan, the Casino de Paris and the Théâtre de la Ville with guest singers Mari Boine and Karen Matheson as well as Donald Shaw.

An enchanting garden (2012–present)

In summer 2010, he announced to write for a next album. A Best-of album is published in 2011 (Barclay Records). In July, 2011, the Het Lindeboom festival gives to him a blank in front of an audience of 25,000: it has the occasion for him to invite the Hungarian singer Szilvia Bognar, one of the great voices of the Eastern countries, as well as the famous Welsh choir Flint Male Voice Choir.

In 2012, he presented a new show, Beajet 'm eus (" I travelled "). On 7 April 2015, Denez published a new studio album, "An enchanting garden - Ul liorzh vurzhudus". This album, comprising 12 original songs written by the singer, including one in English, is the result of several years of writing (a hundred gwerzioù of 80 verses), trips and experiments on stage. The Breton and Celtic themes, unstructured, are interwoven with Slavonic and Armenian ("An tri seblant"), Greek ("Krediñ 'raen"), Andalusian ("Ar binioù skornet"), Bossa nova ("An tri amourouz"), Gypsy or Yiddish ("Beajet'm eus"), African ("An trucher hag an Ankoù") for an entirely acoustic music. In songs in Breton, the artist invites to discover the corners of his inner garden and the plurality of his influences. Denez's vocal, "enigmatic and inspiring" (accompanied by the hang on "Before dawn"), is like a link between the real and the invisible, supported by the writing of timeless stories, sometimes tragic, satirical or burlesque, such as "Peñse Nedeleg", a Fisel dance describing the shipwreck of a freighter that makes the happiness of the inhabitants for Christmas or "An tri amourouz" whose black humor recalls that of Tim Burton. "An Old Story", in English, couples with "Gwechall gozh", in breton, two complaints sharing the same story: an innocent woman burnt like witch for having too many companions.

thumb|Denez and his musicians on biggest stage of [[Vieilles Charrues Festival in 2016.]]

In November 2015, beatmaker James Digger remixed 4 tracks for an EP. It appealed to rapper Masta Ace, emblematic figure of Hip Hop, one of the references of Eminem. In exchange, Denez participated in May 2016 to his album "The Falling Season", under "Story of Me". His song "Gortoz a Ran" is used for two minutes in the episode "Skank Hunt" of the animated series South Park which first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on 21 September 2016.

In November 2016, the live album "A-unvan gant ar stered - In unison with the stars" released, recorded during the tour 2015–2016. On 19 November, after 20 years of absence on fest noz stages, the singer animated the Yaouank Festival in Rennes.

Lyrical influences

Brittany and nature

To Denez Prigent, preserving nature in Brittany is as important as preserving traditions.

Similarly, in Ar gwez-sapin, a song about land consolidation, he criticises the replacement of deciduous trees, traditionally seen in Brittany, with conifers, because of which landscapes lose their specificity, and draws the same link again: "He who is made to forget his culture forgets one day his nature".

The sadness that Denez Prigent feels when he lives in a city is the topic of E trouz ar gêr, which concludes as the world ends, and in Melezourioù-glav, in which he finds a new hope in the last remaining natural element: rain.

Since he cannot find nature around him, Prigent keeps it in his memory (Kereñvor).

Injustice, disease, death

right|thumb|A factory in Copşa Mică.

In the tradition of gwerz, Denez Prigent writes about dramatic events about which he hears during a travel, a conversation, or through medias.

Ur fulenn aour is the lament of a young girl sold by her parents to become a prostitute in the Philippines.

Discography

(1992) Ha daouarn (cassette)
(1993) Ar gouriz koar (new version released in 1996)
(1997) Me 'zalc'h ennon ur fulenn aour
(2000) Irvi
(2002) Live holl a-gevret!
(2002) Black Hawk Down – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Gortoz a ran)
(2003) Sarac'h
(2011) Denez Best of luck chap
(2015) An enchanting garden: Ul liorzh vurzudhus
(2016) In unison with the stars: A-unvan gant ar stered
(2018) Mille chemins
(2021) Sterenez feat. Vellúa
(2022) Ur mor a zaeloù: une mer de larmes
(2025) Toenn-vor: Chants des sept mers

Notes and references

External links

Official site
Denez Prigent on MusicBrainz

Audio and video documents

An Tour Tan (the lighthouse, in Breton) is a website that publishes radio and television shows, in Breton or in French, related to Brittany.
Concert excerpts: Vieilles Charrues festival (2001), festival de Cornouaille (2001), festival interceltique de Lorient (2003) ; Celtica (2005) : solo, with David Pasquet, with Louise Ebrel
Video interview by Anna Louarn during the Vieilles Charrues festival (2001)
Radio show An divskouarn o nijal, in December 2003, for the release of Sarac'h
Video interviews for SkinwelWeb (An Tour Tan's television) after his performances : Celtica (2004), Saint-Patrick in Bercy (2005), Celtica (2005)