Biography
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Born
17 February 1966 (age 58)
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Born In
Santec, Finistère, Bretagne, France
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Denez Prigent :
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Denez Prigent, born 17 Feb, 1966, is a French singer from Santec, in the Finistère (Breton: Penn ar Bed) region of Brittany. In the late 60's, traditional Breton music catched his interest, especially the 'gwerzioù', which he learned from his grandmother. He also learned the 'kan ha diskan' from Alain Leclère and made his first appearance as a singer in a 'fest-noz' 14 years old. In 1987, he was awarded the 'kan ar bobl' award.
After a few years work in a local radio, during which he collected a huge amount of gwerzioù and kan ha diskan songs, he finally stepped into a professional singer status, performing during the Transmusicales (a rock festival) in 1992 and proved that the a-capella breton tradition singing can move all kind of audience.
Dressed in black and a hand on the ear, his singing is deeply rooted by his accent.
He often tours with Louise Ebrel, and collaborated with Arnaud Maisonneuve for the famous international band 'Deep Forest' and for 'Dao Dezi'.
Dao Dezi was a new musical experience toward breton music. Together with Tri Yann, Manu Lann huel, they mixed breton traditional music and songs together with modern dance music. In 1996, he recorded his first a-capella CD ('Ar Gouriz Koar'), which features traditional songs and compositions by Bernez Tangi, Denez Abernot or Yvon Gouez. The year after, a second album was released ('Me zalc'h ennon ur fulenn aour'), a fusion between traditional songs and modern dance music, break-beats, jungle and hip hop.
Denez keeps on going this way by modernizing the living tradition (and does it very well) but also keeps with his famous a-capella songs or kan ha diskan songs together with Louise Ebrel. With Irvi, he keeps going on this amazing way with the same success. The first track of his Irvi album, "Gortoz a Ran" (English: I await - also known as J'attends), recorded with Lisa Gerrard, was chosen by Ridley Scott for the soundtrack of his movie Black Hawk Down. His live recording, 'Holl a-gevret!' is just as excellent as awaited and a good synthesis of his music sofar. All in all, Prigent has recorded 5 albums and has appeared with Lisa Gerrard on two duets.
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Lisa Gerrard :
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Musician, singer and composer Lisa Gerrard (born April 12, 1961, Melbourne) grew up in the multi-ethnic suburb of Prahran with her Irish immigrant parents, where she was exposed to Greek, Turkish, Italian, Irish and Arab cultures. Her upbringing in this diverse suburb had a large influence on her music, particularly on later Dead Can Dance albums (w. Brendan Perry), which made her internationally renowned. She is best known for her deep haunting contralto voice. Her career spans from 1981 to the present, and she has been involved in a wide range of projects. Gerrard received a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award nomination for the score for the 2000 film Gladiator on which she collaborated with Hans Zimmer. She also sings and is an instrumentalist for much of her work, most prolifically using the Yangqin (a Chinese hammered dulcimer).
In 1995 she recorded and released her first solo album, titled The Mirror Pool. After the release of this album, she continued to work with Dead Can Dance, releasing their final album, Spiritchaser, in 1996. Following this, in 1998 she recorded Duality in collaboration with Pieter Bourke. This would mark an extensive collaboration together for a number of film scores, including The Insider and Ali.
Gerrard began a new collaboration with Patrick Cassidy in 2004, marked by the release of Immortal Memory. Again, this collaboration was furthered in film work, including Salem's Lot.
In 2006, Lisa Gerrard released her second solo album, titled The Silver Tree. This album was markedly different from her previous work. It was nominated for the Australian Music Prize for 2006, and is currently shortlisted as one out of nine of the best Australian albums.
Lisa Gerrard's first experience in composing music for a film, came with the 1989 Spanish film El Niño de la Luna, directed by Agustín Villaronga. The film score was composed by Dead Can Dance and the film featured Lisa Gerrard in her first acting role.
Lisa participated in a number of scores but came to fame as a film composer after recording The Insider in 1999, with Pieter Bourke, and Gladiator in 2000, with Hans Zimmer.
In 2005 she collaborated with Ennio Morricone for Fateless.
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