Credit: Found On Internet

Trans Musicales has been France’s cutting-edge music festival since 1979. Quietly tucked away in the pretty Breton capital of Rennes and taking place contrarily in darkest December, it is the French music scene’s biggest secret. Despite its low profile in the UK, Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and Nirvana, have all played Les Trans. Known for its directional programming, Trans Musicales has avoided the stadium-filling names altogether this year to dig further underground.

Founder and director, Jean Luis Brossard, has booked a wide range of bands such as The Whip, Modeselektor, Yo Majesty, Norway’s Salvatore and France’s Papier Tigre. In all, 72 bands play with 33,000 people attending. Sadly, Von Sudenfed and their admirers, XX Teens, cancel but nothing can dampen the spirits. Especially Brossard’s who is excited to see the results his invitation to Tunng to take part in a unique collaborative residency. For 4 days Tunng will play with their guests Buck 65 and Serafina Steer. This isn’t the most of obvious of exclusives but that’s part of the fun.

Each evening, Trans’ programme starts in Renne’s scattered music venues while the separate Bar En Trans organisation puts on smaller gigs in the city’s many bars and swells the numbers further. Like Sonar, the bulk of the festival takes place in far-flung exhibition halls on the edge of the city. Unlike Sonar, Brossard makes sure these vast spaces are decorated with artistic installations, features and massive lighting rigs. No expense seems to be spared for the design, sound, lighting or stage ‘props’ which are all of excellent quality.

The only big drawback is the half-hour shuttle-bus ride to and from town. A typical ride features drunks play-fighting and trying to strip each other as they ‘ride’ the join of the bendy bus while the drunkest-girl-ever sits next to Music Towers screaming sporadically and shouting out unintelligible parts of conversations going on in her head. Music Towers has to intervene to prevent her from setting fire to passengers’ hair and coats with her wavering spliff. The ride can be a very long 30 minutes.

The showcase of the festival is Tunng’s residency outside town in one of those superbly designed, contemporary arts buildings the French are so good at funding. The idea of a seven-strong folktronica collective collaborating with a classical harpist/ singer-songwriter and a hip-hop humorist is intriguing. The 90 minute concert is a rewarding one. Understandably, with only three days to rehearse their project, the collaboration doesn’t seem to take place on the deepest level - most songs are led by either Tunng or Buck 65 or Serafina Steer and tend to feature only two of the three elements at one given time.