Eternal April :: Erwan Keravec (bagpipes)

Eternal April presents Erwan Keravec, a Breton bagpiper who brings together tradition and experimental composition in his new solo release Whitewater played live to the London audience at the Swiss Church in Covent Garden. The rare performance is supported by a special programme from the Goldsmiths Contemporary Music Ensemble, featuring a series of evocative contemporary pieces.

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Erwan Keravec is a highland bagpiper, composer and improviser. In seeking out more unusual sounds, and ways of playing and listening to his instrument far from its original cultural setting, he explores improvised music, free and “noise” jazz, and establishes a repertoire of contemporary music for solo pipes, trio with solo voice, and with choir. With an interest in movement and in settings associated with reinvention, he also writes, plays and improvises for dance.
Erwan Keravec made his debut in Lokoal Mendon’s Bagad Roñsed. Starting in 1996, he explored free jazz and improvised music with La Marmite Infernale, the ARFI big band. Alongside his exploits with the Niou Bardophones (2000), he jammed with trumpeter Jean-Luc Cappozzo (Air brut – 2010).
Since 2007, he has pursued his quest for a style of piping removed from its original setting with the projects Urban Pipes I (2007) and Urban Pipes II (2011). To make his intentions clear, he commissioned composers to write solo pieces for the instrument as part of the Nu Piping series (since 2011). So far, he has been behind 19 works by 17 composers. For the quartet SONNEURS, he commissioned 12 pieces. This research led to IN C // 20 PIPERS (2022) and 8 PIPERS FOR PHILIP GLASS (2024).
In 2009, he met Basque singer Beñat Achiary, with whom he made Ametsa (2011). He has been working on the repertoire for VOX (since 2013), for bagpipes and voice (soprano and baritone), a programme further expanded in Extended VOX (2019) with Les Cris de Paris — a 24-piece choir led by Geoffroy Jourdain — featuring two commissions.He has also staged Blind (2015), a piece for a blindfolded audience, and has led the Revolutionary Birds project (2015) with Tunisian singer Mounir Troudi and percussionist Wassim Halal. In the field of experimental music, he collaborates with Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson (Luft – 2015) and American drummer Hamid Drake (2019). He also formed the trio White Sands with guitarist Julien Desprez and percussionist Will Guthrie (2019).
He is increasingly active in choreography, writing, performing and improvising with Gaëlle Bourges (Le Marin acéphale – 1999; Homothétie 949 – 2002; À mon seul désir – 2014; Conjurer la peur – 2017), Cécile Borne (Robes fanées – 2008), Boris Charmatz (Enfant – 2011), Emmanuelle Huynh (2015), Mickaël Phelippeau (membre fantôme – 2016), Alban Richard (Breathisdancing – 2017), and Jordí Galí (Anima – 2022).

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Goldsmiths Contemporary Music Ensemble is an open mixture of students, staff, alumni and friends exploring experimental music through weekly sessions and occasional performances. The ensemble has performed music by Julius Eastman, Sarah Hughes, James Creed, Mieko Shiomi, Eva-Maria Houben, and many others.

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Early bird: £15
General admission: £20
Eternal April is supported by the Richard Thomas Foundation.
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Curated by Sasha Elina, the Eternal series of music events and multi-disciplinary situations is a London-based project (established in 2024) that aims to present and support diverse perspectives, communities, and artistic provocations. It welcomes the audience to join a movement that accommodates both emerging and established artists, bridging the classical and the novel. Music, theatre, dance, moving image, sound art, poetry and their crossovers enter the Eternal series, with no limits or genre restrictions.

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