Tiersens to sail to Shetland for gigs during Tall Ships week

 

TWO acclaimed musicians are set to perform in Shetland later this month during the Tall Ships week – after sailing to the isles on their own yacht.

Yann Tiersen and QUINQUIS will perform in Shetland on 25 and 26 July as part of a unique tour.

Tiersen is perhaps most well known for creating the soundtrack to the 2001 hit film Amélie.

But he has since been pushing boundaries with varied instrumentation such as vintage synthesisers, modular synthesis and piano, while exploring the connection with nature, place and a love of Celtic languages, which includes his native Breton.

He will perform at an acoustic stage at Commercial Street outside the RBS in Lerwick, which will feature a piano, on 26 July at 2pm.

Meanwhile QUINQUIS – aka Émilie Tiersen – will perform at the Bop Shop in Lerwick on 25 July at 7pm, with donations on the door.

She released her debut album last year, with the record said to merge “sparse electronics, immersive atmospherics, and deft melodies, carried by Émilie’s tender yet quietly soaring vocals, all sung in Breton”.

The pair will also perform on the same bill at Bigton’s Hymhus on 26 July at 7pm, before heading to Fair Isle to perform on 28 July.

The tour will see the two Breton artists travel from their home in Ushant, and set sail for a tour of “Celtic lands and the Faroe Islands”.

They will be travelling on their sailboat, Ninnog – named after a medieval mother superior, who travelled from Wales to Brittany becoming a protector of women and a champion of sustainability and forestry.