After catching-up on sleep with a wink of rest, we started our Friday off with a walkabout of the stunning city of Rennes.
That afternoon we hit up Le Triangle to watch Compagnie Zahrbat rehearse Motion, a new piece lead by Brahim Bouchelaghem. Twelve talented Ukrainian avant-contemporary breakdancers made us gasp with their interpretation of our current use of digital screens in our daily lives. Almost forgot our jaw which was dropped and left on the ground.
As day became night, we popped into UBU for a min to catch electronic indie-rock Swiss boys Pandour who weaved grooves between the thick haze of smoke.
Between sets we linked up with French smooth pop act The Midnight Revolution and chatted about Les Trans with them. “It’s a really important festival here,” the Brittany locals explained. “There’s lots of professionals from all over the world. We’re so happy to be here and play here… It’s like a family.”
Over on the main stage (or L’Etage) at Le Liberté, we caught Gloria. The French act has an indie rock meets psychedelic 60s pop vibe and are signed to cool activist label Howlin ‘Banana. Just check out this little session the band did at Les Trans to see why we fell in love with this group.
Le Liberté acted as the industry hub all weekend and also hosted a record fair featuring local labels. Obviously we had to lurk about…
We hopped on the bus back to Parc Expo in time to catch percussionists extraordinaire Thor & Friends in Hall 8. The lovely ambient act (which features Thor Harris of Swans) were just delightful and soothed our soul as we floated away.
Just past midnight we shimmied over to Hall 9 for the infectiously good vibes of House Gospel Choir. Covering house classics whilst making them even better with live percussion & the best vocals, we sang and danced along with these London greats. Deffo a bright highlight of the weekend.
Even the staff working couldn’t help but pause to capture some of the brillant energy. Hands clapped along and minds were freed as we let go and celebrated the small things with this big choir full of love.
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