Wednesday 10th August | 8pm | £7 ADV / £5 members unwaged

Erwan Keravec (FR) is a bagpiper, composer and improviser. He has his roots in the Breton tradition of bagpiping, but in seeking out the more unusual sounds and ways of playing and listening to his instrument, far from its original cultural setting, he is exploring improvised music, free and ‘noise’ jazz, and establishing a repertoire of contemporary music.

Erwan describes his piece Urban Pipes as "a utopia aiming to show that the bagpipe is a universal instrument. To imagine music for solo bagpipe that does not evoke its cultural origin, music that is only music, with no other function than to be listened to. This project also entails a modification of traditional playing modes, as well as work on how to use the bagpipe sound and harmonic strangeness outside of strictly melodic practice. All this seems paradoxical for a traditional musician like myself. Yet it is the way I have chosen for Urban Pipes, in order to see what kind of music I can envisage for my instrument."

“Erwan plays music specially devised for his instrument – music of austere violence, at the same time grandiose, fundamentally modern and often radical, yet never cut off from its roots.” - Jazz Magazine