Yann Tiersen Shares New Track 'Ker Yegu (Solo Piano)'

Yann Tiersen & QUINQUIS, are coming to the end of a unique summer tour that has so far seen the two Breton artists travel from their home in Ushant to Ireland and up to the Faroe Islands for a tour of Celtic lands performing in pubs, churches, record shops, an ecovillage, an ex-consulate and community centers along the way, traveling on their sailboat Ninnog.

As Tiersen recently explained to The Herald, “I live on an island so I see water as a link, a connection, not as a barrier between countries.”

The duo will play Liverpool and then will travel to the Ara Deg festival in Wales for two dates at the end of the month before returning to Brittany for a show on September 1st. Full details are listed below. Read the tour manifesto to find out more about their aims.

Following the tour, Yann Tiersen will release Kerber Complete, a box set that collates four very different versions of his 2021 album Kerber. It will be released on September 15th, 2023 on CD and digitally via Mute.

Kerber Complete will collate Kerber, Yann Tiersen’s 2021 album built on modular synthesis and sampling, 11 5 18 2 5 18, the modular recomposition of Kerber, a brand new solo piano recording of Kerber and an album of remixes and reworkings from the likes of Terence Fixmer, Beatrice Dillon and Laurel Halo, as well as remixes by Tiersen of NEU!, Keeley Forsyth, Michael Price and Simon Fisher Turner & Edmund de Waal.

While 2021’s Kerber saw Tiersen incorporating modular synthesis and sampling into the recording process, his follow up album, 11 5 18 2 5 18, was born from further experimentation in the studio as the artist prepared for a performance at Berlin’s modular and synthesizer festival, Superbooth.

Using samples as his source, Tiersen resampled, reprogrammed and recomposed existing audio to create entirely new tracks unrecognizable and decontextualized from their original versions. Kerber Complete brings the story full circle as he compliments the two albums with remixes from across Kerber and an album of newly recorded piano versions of the tracks, piano being the original source of the samples for Kerber.

TOUR DATES:

8/22/2023 – Liverpool, 24 Kitchen St (Yann Tiersen & QUINQUIS)
8/25/2023 – Wales, Ara Deg (Yann Tiersen)
8/26/2023 – Wales, Ara Deg (QUINQUIS) 
9/1/2023 - Brittany, FR - Le SEW plateforme culturelle à Morlaix (Yann Tiersen & QUINQUIS)

Yann Tiersen has been involved in music for most of his life, pushing boundaries with varied instrumentation - vintage synthesizers, modular synthesis, piano, violin, Ondes Martenot  - while exploring our connection with nature, place and his love of Celtic languages, including his native Breton.

Émilie Tiersen released SEIM, her debut album as QUINQUIS on Mute in spring 2022 after a series of releases as Tiny Feet. The album, described by Uncut as “… ethereal, sometimes casually ominous songs… amid flickering synth flourishes” was followed a few months later by a new collection of compositions, the AER EP.

QUINQUIS’ work is rooted in both historical and modern stories, connecting worlds with electronics and Émilie’s tender yet quietly soaring vocals, all sung in Breton.

Photo credit: Richard Dumas

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