Yann Tiersen shares video for ‘Poull Bojer’, taken from his most electronic album to date

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(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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Bernard Van Isacker is the Chief Editor of Side-Line Magazine. With a career spanning more than two decades, Van Isacker has established himself as a respected figure in the darkwave scene.

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