The land of northern Brittany that I have walked since childhood is linked to the epic adventure of fishing in Iceland. I wanted to pay homage to the Paimpol sailors of that time, known as Icelanders because of their participation in fishing campaigns that lasted many months in extreme living conditions.

I was lucky enough to meet the last witness of this great story in 1995. As they left the port, the sailors and their families who had stayed ashore sang the Ave maris stella, the text of which I have taken up again to compose this “tomb of the missing”, in the image of the wall of the same name in Perros Hamon, not far from the promontory of the Widows’ Cross, in the Côtes d’Armor.

Recordings, audio excerpts: CD “Lucis memoria”, November 2011, Label Inconnu LI 11-1001, distribution codæx. Soloists of Mikrokosmos, conducted by Loïc Pierre.