French bagpipe player, Erwan Keravec, presents his new solo album, Whitewater. Released by Ici d’ailleurs, Whitewater is a personal work, a return the musician’s roots after 15 years focused on collective projects, imbued with the aesthetics of white water: airy, turbulent, sparkling, unstable, free.

Keravec has gradually moved the bagpipes away from their traditional use in order to explore the full range of peripheral sounds that this ancient instrument, found everywhere and in infinite variations, can produce: clusters, differentials, strikes, rubs, drones, taking advantage of its ability to emit continuous sounds and drones. This apparent sobriety opens up a rich sound world, traversed by turbulence and eddies, like so many micro-acoustic events.

For fans of Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Nurse With Wound.

With support from Dali de Saint Paul and Elle Barker.

£9 early bird tickets are available until 11 April.

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About the artist

Erwan Keravec is a french bagpipe player, composer, improviser, and performer. Active since the 1990s, he is a unique figure on the French music scene, combining traditional Breton music with contemporary creation. Originally from Brittany, Erwan Keravec was introduced to the bagpipes as a teenager by the player and luthier Jorj Botuha, then joined the bagad Roñsed Mor de Lokoal Mendon with his brother Guénolé Keravec on the bombarde. In 1996, he began to explore new aesthetics with the desire to break down the barriers between his instrument and its traditional culture. He then ventured into improvised music (free jazz, noise) and collaborated with Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Beñat Achiary, Mats Gustafsson, and others. The musician brought the bagpipes into the contemporary sphere and helped to enrich their repertoire. With the Offshore company he founded, he led ambitious ensemble projects, performing American minimalist works such as Terry Riley’s “In C” for 20 players (2022) and “8 sonneurs pour Philip Glass” (2023). His ensembles perform in France and internationally (Europe, Canada, Australia), and have recorded several albums.

Dali de Saint Paul is a raw experimental vocalist, a performer, a composer, a producer and cultural actor of the Bristol experimental music scene. In her music, Dali’s particular use of vocals through fx blurs sonic borders, questions gender stereotypes and destabilizes spatial and linguistic borders; as lyricist, she mixes poetics and politics, bringing intensity to her performances. Dali refreshed conceptions of improvisation, bringing back the focus on community in music culture. She has collaborated with Moor Mother, Valentina Magaletti, Mariam Rezaei, Ossia and Maxwell Sterling to name a few.

Elle Barker is a Cardiff-based improviser and guitarist. Incorporating fingerstyle and free music techniques with modular synthesis experimentation, her performances focus on detailed textures that pull from traditions of folk, blues, and noise guitar. She also performs with Sherbet Flies, A Lack of North, Port Huron, and Crimson City.