Red Cardell

Red Cardell

Red Cardell
Background information
Origin Quimper, Brittany, France
Genres Rock, Celtic rock, world music
Years active 1992
Labels Kas Ha Bar, Keltia Musique
Associated acts Dan Ar Braz, Dave Pegg, Jimme O'Neill, Stéphane Mellino, Dr Das, Bagad Kemper
Website redcardell.com
Members Jean-Pierre Riou
Manu Masko
Mathieu Péquériau
Past members Jean-Michel Moal
Ian Proêrer
Patrick Goyat
Christophe Poignant

Red Cardell is a Breton Rock band who mixes Breton music with rock, folk, blues and world music. The group was formed in 1992 by Jean-Pierre Riou (vocals, guitars), Jean-Michel Moal (accordion) and Ian Proërer (drums).

Currently its members include Jean-Pierre Riou, the leader and last original member as singer, guitarist, mandolin player and piper bombard, Manu Masko on drums and machines (since 2001) and Mathieu Péquériau on harmonica, washboard and percussions (since 2011). In parallel its three members participate in collective band The Celtic Social Club since 2013, alongside Jimme O'Neill (The Silencers) or Ronan Le Bars (Dan Ar Braz / Héritage des Celtes) .

They are considered by music critics as one of the best Breton bands of his time on the footsteps of Alan Stivell and Dan Ar Braz, precursors of the Celtic wave of the seventies having learned to combine rock and contemporary music with traditional music.

Biography

Red Cardell, one of the most famous bands from Brittany,[1][2][3] (the peninsula of Celtic identity in north-western France), is essentially a live band. Formed in Quimper in 1992, since then has recorded sixteen albums including five live [4] and played at nearly two thousand concerts all over Europe and North America, including famous stages in France such as: Vieilles Charrues Festival, Eurockéennes, Les Francofolies de La Rochelle, Printemps de Bourges, Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Le Zénith Nantes Métropole and Paris-Bercy Arena. They also played in Ukraine,[5] Finland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, West Indies, USA and Canada.[6]

Unclassifiable, their music is mainly a mix of Breton music and also of Slavic, latin or berber music with blues, rock, folk, punk and French realistic song and even more recently cheered up with electro and hip hop elements. The lyrics are inspired by the style of writing of poets and authors like Jacques Brel, Léo Ferré, Boris Vian or Jacques Prévert. It is these rich influences that follows the specific Jean-Pierre Riou poetic, turned to melancholy. They define themselves as a popular music band open to the world.

Jimme O'Neill and Jean-Pierre Riou

Besides their collaboration with French, Breton, Berber and Ukrainian musicians, they also have performed with British or American musicians, either on records or live. These artists include: Jimme O'Neill[7] (The Silencers), Dr Das[8](Asian Dub Foundation), Dave Pegg (Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull), Tanya Morgan, I.C. Will, Juan Sebastian Larobina and Winston McAnuff.

As an independent rock band from their beginnings, Red Cardell released their first album Rouge in 1993, followed by a nonstop tour for several years, sharing the stage with Doctor Feelgood, The Fleshtones, Noir Désir and La Mano Negra Manu Chao orchestra.

In 1999, hundreds of concerts and three albums later, the new tracks of Rock'n roll Comédie are recorded in Belgium with former Black Sabbath Producer/Engineer Mike Butcher at the helm, also known for his work with Marvin Gaye.

In the period of the three albums Naître ("Be Born", 2006), Le Banquet de cristal ("The Crystal Banquet", 2008) and La Fête au village ("The Party in the Village", 2009) Red Cardell recorded and performed on stage with many guests including Dan Ar Braz, Miossec, Yann Tiersen or Thomas Fersen.[9] Along with Oleg Skripka (singer of Vopli Vidopliassova and icon of the Orange Revolution) and Gourtopravci, a female traditional vocal choir, they regularly travelled across Ukraine for concert tours from Kharkiv to Donetsk, Lviv or Yalta and several times in Kiev with two exceptional performances for Kraina Mriy festival, in front of tens of thousands of spectators at Maidan independence square.

The Fest-Rock show with Bagad Kemper

In 2010, their album Soleil Blanc ("White sun")[10] is recorded and mixed by the English producer Clive Martin[11] (who has worked with famous artists such as Queen, Sting, David Byrne) and co-produced by the French musician Stéfane Mellino, singer and guitarist of Les Négresses Vertes. On this album which shows a more folk and blues trend and also flirts with Zydeco, Rockabilly or Charleston, the band is supported by the Michel Delage brass section. The song Comme une pierre qui roule is a tribute to Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone and the song Robert Johnson to the American blues singer and guitarist.

Spring 2012, their album Falling in love, recorded in France, was mixed in New York city by the American sound engineer Ariel Borujow (Black Eyed Peas, Madonna, Just Blaze) at Stadium Red studio in Harlem. The album was awarded as best progressive edge album of the Year by the Indie acoustic project (USA), in 2013.

In 2014, with the Fest-rock show, they represented Brittany alongside Bagad Kemper (the most-titled bagad of the Breton pipe bands national championship) for La Nuit de la Bretagne ("The Brittany Night") French tour, including a date at Bercy Arena in Paris. In April, they announced their participation as the new creation of the Festival des Vieilles Charrues (The biggest in France) for its 2014 edition : The Celtic Social Club, a supergroup of seven Breton musicians and others, which includes Jimme O'Neill (The Silencers), Ronan Le Bars (Héritage des Celtes) and the three members of Red Cardell. Whithin the new band they recorded their first album released in June. We also see Red Cardell in July in the other side of Pyrénées on the stage of the main Celtic festival of Spain in Ortigueira in Asturias and December 31 in Cyprus to end the year.

In February 2015, they began a French tour within The Celtic Social Club and also announced venues in Germany (TFF Rudolstadt), Switzerland (the Geneva Celebrations) and three gigs in New York City, invited by the association of Breton diaspora of Big Apple to celebrate the Feast of Saint-Yves, National Day of Brittany.

Current members

Additional members on stage

Former Members

History of the composition of Red Cardell

Discography

Jean-Michel Moal et Dave Pegg
Red Cardell with the Michel Delage brass section
Year Title Notes
1993 Rouge Studio
1996 Douleur Studio
1997 3 Studio
2000 Rock'n'roll Comédie Studio
2002 La Scène Live performance
2003 Cardelectro Experimental
2003 Sans fard Studio
2004 Bal à l'Ouest Live performance
2006 Naître Studio
2008 Le Banquet de cristal Best of with guests
2009 La Fête au village Live performance with guests
2010 Soleil Blanc Studio
2012 Falling in Love Studio
2013 Running in Paris Live performance
2013 Fest-Rock Live performance with Bagad Kemper
2014 Gwenn-ha-du Concept album with Bagad Kemper
Year Title Notes
2014 The Celtic Social Club Studio with guests

References

  1. ↑ Grand Prix du Disque Le Telegramme 2006
  2. ↑ Grand Prix du Disque Produit en Bretagne 2009
  3. ↑ Culturebox France3 TV
  4. ↑ Concert and co Blog
  5. ↑ TV in Ukrainia
  6. ↑ Francomix quebec
  7. ↑ Celvival of Don 2009
  8. ↑ MySpace Dr Das
  9. ↑ "Bal à l'Ouest", Celtic Music for Dummies, 2009, p. 26
  10. ↑ Journalist Jean Théfaine's blog
  11. ↑ France3 TV Clive Martin about Red Cardell

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Red Cardell.