Yann Tiersen – Ar Maner Kozh

Brest-born Yann Tiersen is probably known to most people – like me at first – as he composed the soundtracks for the films “The Fabulous World of Amélie” and “God by Lenin”. His latest album “Kerber” reflects the roughness and fascination of his place of residence. He lives on the island of Ouessant off the coast of Brittany, which is also known as the “island of the end of the world”. Ar Maner Kozh is the Breton name of an inn near his home. The piece begins at just over 50 Hz and tests the soundboard’s ability to handle low tones with its deep bass sequences. It succeeds effortlessly.

He has set up his recording studio “the Eskal” in an old discotheque. There he can live out his multi-instrumentality to the full. He plays (at least) violin, piano, accordion, mandolin, guitar, bass, banjo, melodica, vibraphone and uses a variety of rhythm instruments and sound snippets from nature as background music. On Kerber, he has discovered electronic music and mixed it with piano sound in a grandiose way.