If you enjoy Nordic Noir, police dramas, and crime thrillers, then you may have already encountered ‘Crá’, the Irish language collaboration between TG4 and BBC Northern Ireland.
‘Crá’ translates into English as meaning “torment”, and it’s set in the wild and desolate boglands of Donegal, in Ireland’s North West. Starring Dónall Ó Héalai, Alex Murphy (best known for ‘Young Offenders’), Róisín Murphy, Tara Breathnach, and Hannah Brady, ‘Crá’ tells the story of a body found buried in a bog, fifteen years after they’d first gone missing. There is of course plenty to get your teeth into, with the isolated village holding many mysteries, that are solved over the course of six gripping episodes.
Written by Doireann Ní Chorragáin and Richie Conroy, and directed by Philip Doherty, ‘Crá’ is also notable for its haunting soundtrack, by Breton composer, Krismenn. We were struck by the stunning, ethereal, and beautiful music, and took the opportunity to speak with Krismenn.
First of all, please tell us something about yourself. Where are you from, and how long have you been making music?
I’m Christophe Le Menn, also known as Krismenn. I come from Brittany. As a child, I started playing music in a Bagad (the Breton pipe band), and then I became interested in many different styles and instruments: traditional Breton singing, American folk, accordion, and traditional music. I’m passionate about rhythm, and when I wanted to write my own songs in Breton, rap came quite naturally, even though it wasn’t my background. Rap got me interested in human beatboxing, and human beatboxing then got me interested in electronic music.
Could you please share with us something about your musical style? Do you stick to one genre, or do you change it depending on the theme you’re writing about, and so on?
Today, my music is nourished by my various passions for all these types of music. I enjoy singing traditional songs and making experimental electronic music at the same time.
Is ‘Crá’ the first TV show you’ve composed the soundtrack for? How did that come about? How were you selected to compose for ‘Crá’?
I’ve composed music for radio dramas and documentaries, but this is the very first time I’ve done the soundtrack for a series! I met the director Philip Doherty as part of a European project to write theatre in a minority language. He was writing a play in Irish, and I was writing one in Breton. We became friends. We had many discussions about music, and I showed him what I was doing. I think he liked my mix of acoustic and electronic music and felt that it really matched Crá’s aesthetic and what he wanted to do: something dark and different but still connected to Donegal in a way. I live in Kreiz-Breizh, a rather remote and special place where traditional and alternative cultures are very strong, so maybe we share that with Donegal…
Your track, ‘Kavout a rin’, is quite haunting. When I first heard it while watching ‘Crá’, I wondered if you used Uilleann pipes. Is that correct? You’re from Brittany—do you feel there’s a similarity between your traditional music and that of Ireland?
Yes, it’s Uilleann pipes. It’s quite funny, I have a very strong love-hate relationship with Irish music. I listened to a lot of Irish music when I was a teenager, and then, when I got interested in traditional Breton singing and Breton culture in general, I completely rejected Irish music.
On TV, when Brittany is presented to tourists, there’s always Uilleann pipes or Scottish bagpipes. There are more Breton musicians playing the Scottish bagpipes than there are Breton biniou pipers. Many people in Brittany are interested in Celtic music but don’t give a damn about the Breton language. Since the ’70s, Breton music has been hugely influenced by Irish music, and very few people were interested in the Breton language. So, I totally rejected that for 20 years, and instead of being interested in Celtic music like a lot of Breton musicians, I turned to electronic music.
Over the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland, and I’ve stopped rejecting this culture! Contemporary Celtic culture is part of me too…I think we have a lot to share, and even if our music isn’t as close as we might think, our languages and our passion for diversity bring us together.
How did you decide on the style of music for ‘Crá’? Did you have the pieces already written, or did you compose them specifically for the show? What sort of instruments did you use, and how did you decide which ones?
All the music was composed specifically for ‘Crá’. I used many of the instruments in my studio (modular synths, double bass, banjo, metal percussion) and also collaborated with other musicians. The idea was to hijack the instruments used in Irish music (Uilleann pipes, fiddle) and mix them with electronic instruments (synths), without actually playing traditional themes.
Xavier Boderiou on the Uilleann pipes and Thomas Felder on the fiddle are both excellent traditional musicians who are also passionate about experimental music, so they immediately understood what I was getting at.
We recorded 20 Uilleann pipe drone starts, for example, which we overdubbed. I had asked Xavier to make false starts to make the drone as irregular as possible, and it was this strange drone that set the tone for the music in the film. It’s something we’re all familiar with, but there’s always something creaking and not working right! Laurent Hilairet and I also went into a church at night and recorded a drone with the organ playing a chord while I pulled the organ stops one by one, gradually moving from a simple, soft track to the most powerful full stop. The end of the drone, with all the registers open, was pretty terrifying!
I also worked on voice superimposition with Maela Le Badezet. Philip Doherty wanted classical choral work and a female voice that evoked the voice of Conall’s late mother. So we worked together on this and even included a song in Breton in the second episode!
What’s next for you? Where can fans hear more from you?
Philip and I really enjoy working together, and we’re thinking about other ways of doing so. Maybe an audio fiction written by Philip, translated into Breton, and set to music by me? We’ll see! At the moment, I’m writing a play combining electronic music and storytelling—a project involving research and writing that has taken me to Connemara and the north of Norway! It’ll be out in a year. In the meantime, I hope to be able to release other tracks from the ‘Crá’ series in an album by the spring. You can also find my first album on streaming platforms.
‘Crá’ is available to watch online on BBC iPlayer, BBC Northern Ireland, and Ireland’s Irish language channel, TG4. ‘Crá’ is as Gaeilge (in Irish) but with English subtitles.
You can find out more about Krismenn and his music online on through his official website, and listen to the haunting music he composed for ‘Crá’ here:
