Bleep

Yann Tiersen returns to Mute with the exemplary Kerber, seven tracks of original piano-led compositions. As we’ve come to expect from Tiersen it’s a wonderfully cinematic and melancholy affair, who rose to prominence with his scores for Amélie and Goodbye Lenin alongside a vast catalogue of original productions.

Opening track ‘Kerlann’ is the kind of track you’d expect most artists to end an album on. A simply beautiful piano piece, delicately detailed and expansive with touches of soft glitching and reverb tails, which sets the scene for the album to follow.

Each track begins with a piano refrain before they unfurl - some start deceptively simple like ‘Ar Maner Kozh’, which places emphasis on tonal texturing and interloping melodies; whereas some like the title track ‘Kerber’ are neo-classical piano opuses in their own right. Others take more unexpected and dramatic turns - ‘Ker Al Loch’ builds into a proggy, new age epic whose tempo dips and wavers wildly. There are touches of contemporary sound design and modern electronics weaved throughout the album which provide extra dynamics and shift the momentum of tracks which could have easily been left as pure piano pieces. Final track ‘Poull Bojer’ encapsulates this textural blend in a fittingly epic outro. With piano refrains aided by subtle synthesiser lines and softly distorted melodic leads, it builds skywards before evaporating into modular vapour.

A striking work that continuously morphs in new directions throughout, Yann Tiersen excels in putting his own stamp on modern classical music.