Composer member of a large family of Breton musicians, sometimes called the Molard tribe (Jacky on the violin, Patrick on the bagpipes and Claude guitarist who died in 1996), Dominique Molard played with Alain Stivell whom he met very young in the bagad Quic en Groigne in Saint-Malo, of which the harpist was a penn-ringer, then which he followed on tour. He also crossed paths with the Guichen brothers, metal guitarist Pat O’May and accompanied singers Nilda Fernandez (1993), Jacques Higelin (with his Scottish drum class from the Douarnenez music school in 1991) or Gilles Served. The one who has lived in Tréboul in Douarnenez for 40 years brings out the book of his life: “The Fabulous Story of Dominique Molard, Master of percussion, creator of the Armorhythms of the Ends of the World”.
This work is the book of his life: 340 pages of a real dialogue with the Malouine Colette Ollivier-chantrel, fascinating, bubbling with memories and rich in photos. More than 50 years of music, since the 60s when he played drums with the bagad Quic en Groigne then with the Rennes pipe-band “An Ere”, the first of its kind in Brittany created in 1967 until his recent creations as “Armorrythmes” in 2008 at the Bout du Monde festival in Crozon with world dances and dances inspired by hip hop.
There are countless bagadoù that Dominique Molard brought to the elite (Bourbriac, Douarnenez, Saint-Malo where he entered at the age of 11). He is also the one who brought the percussions of the world (tabla from India, Irish Bodhran, African Sanza…) into these musical formations and then into the groups he started, when there was no tradition of percussion in Breton music, except for Scottish pipe band music which served as a model for bagadoù.
The book is available on Dominique Molard’s Facebook page