Articles Written By: guuzbourg

Anna Järvinen

  • Posted on 17/03/2011
  • /Under Musique

Lolita-voiced Anna Järvinen was born in Finland, but lives in Stockholm and sings in Swedish. Not French, no. But her music (third album is coming up) is very much inspired by Gainsbourg and the like, especially when you hear the gorgeous new single Lilla Anna. That church organ, that fat bass, those strings, the drumbreak – it’s a wonderful take on Je t’aime…, Slogan and other late 60s Serge. But it’s not a gimmick (ok, maybe the bird is), this is genuinely sexy. Video here.

Anna Järvinen – Lilla Anna

Le Grand Bateau

  • Posted on 15/03/2011
  • /Under Musique

A girl singing a folksy tune in French, with added Hammond, clavinet, rockabilly-guitar and a nod to Yves Montand’s A Bicyclette. That you gotta hear, right? The girl’s called Aster van Vaerenbergh, who’s a very talented cartoon-artist as well (she made a graphic novel about Elizabeth Bathory). She made the drawings on and in the debut album of Belgium-based Le Grand Bateau, named after cruiseships that sailed the seven seas and had bands on board to entertain the well-dressed holiday-makers. LGB is influenced by classic chanson, tango, folk, 60s pop and whatnot. You can hear these are experienced musicians (pianist Yves Meersschaert was part of many bands, he also conducts the Propere Fanfere, counting 100 members! But LGB keeps it more intimate, just the way we like it over here.

Le Grand Bateau – Vava

 

Yelle

  • Posted on 14/03/2011
  • /Under Musique

Yelle‘s new album is out now, featuring the great singles La Musique and Que veux-tu (both remixed to further brilliance, go here to listen). It’s even more 80s than the now classic debut, though no covers. As far as I know. Mon Pays, that sounds something straight out of the Vince Clarke vault of never-before released gems, is my fave from the album.

Yelle – Mon pays

Arnaud Fleurent-Didier

Guestpost! Adrian of DCR on Arnaud Fleurent-Didier:

The worst interview I ever did was with a famous US comedienne who, at the time, was huge in the UK. It was over the phone and she was talking on a mobile, in the back of a car, being driven to a concert somewhere on Britain’s motorway network. It was terrible. Every other sentence was lost in a haze of horrific static and buzzing. I managed to salvage a piece out of it but, really, it was awful.
French pop star Arnaud Fleurent-Didier had warned me that his phone line was ”a bit noisy”, but I wasn’t really prepared for the sound of a swarm of bees that hit when I called him. But whereas other interviewees might have shrugged and said ‘forget about it’, he legged it along the road, found a landline and called me back. And all this the evening before he was due to fly to China for a fortnight of shows. Chapeau!
He turned out to be an engaging interviewee. Speaking in English, he talked about playing in China to Chinese people, rather than to an audience of French expats (“that would be terrible!”), playing all the instruments on his most recent album La Reproduction himself (“apart from the flute”) and the trouble you encounter by having a beautiful woman as a drummer.
You can listen to the whole interview in You and the Night and the Music on Different Class Radio.

Arnaud Fleurent-Didier – France Culture

Souvenir

  • Posted on 07/03/2011
  • /Under Musique

Don’t you just love sexy French vocals over chilled electro-beats? Jaime (who looks like the lovechild of Ron Maell and Boris Blank) and the superlovely Patricia of Souvenir made a new album, and they’re serving just that: husky female sighing over robotic music. Travelogues features English and French songs, music-wise it’s a little rougher (colder, if you like) ’round the edges. Lo-fi Italo, if that’s possible. Music for sunglasses at night.

Souvenir – Coup de coeur

Coeur de Peter

  • Posted on 03/03/2011
  • /Under Musique

Peter Peter is a Montreal-based singer-songwriter who just released his first album, Homonyme. An interesting album, with some post-rock elements (he worked with a producer who also worked with Godspeed You! Black Emperor), nice ballads, subtle electronica and, more importantly, a duet with Coeur de Pirate. In French, yay! There’s another song with female backing-vocals, but my guess is this isn’t our Béatrice.

Peter Peter & Coeur de Pirate – Tergiverse

Gainsbourg, Intégrale?

  • Posted on 03/03/2011
  • /Under Musique

The interesting part about the anniversary edition of Gainsbourg’s Intégrale box, is that it the title Intégrale is nowhere to be found. Only if you want to order it, you see the title. And then you can read the quite unfavourable reviews. The critique focusses on the omittance of songs like La Noyée and Le sable & le soldat, and the umpteenth rehashing of old material that every SG-fan already has on their treasured albums and earlier compilations. Understandable. How many SG-novices will buy a 160 euro box with 20 cds? Why omit songs that were on earlier compilations? Why is the personnel of later albums mentioned, but not the players on Serge’s first EPs? I got my box yesterday and I have to say I’m quite pleased with it. I think it looks good, I like the pictures and it has several songs I’d never heard: like the Les Papillons Noirs-duet with Bijou, some instrumentals and full version of Je suis venu te dire. Now, just who is that at the very end of the song? (It’s Jane Birkin, saying ‘Ah bien là, je peux pas faire plus que ça’, or ‘Hold it, I can’t go on anymore’) (Thanks Pierre)

There’s no obligation to buy. The stuff that you don’t have, will no doubt turn up on the internet. But the feeling to open up this box, see 20 cd’s, see the photos, flip through the booklet (all text in French, another mistake), I like how that makes me feel.

Serge Gainsbourg – Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais (full version)
Serge Gainsbourg – Je ne t’aime plus moi aussi (instrumental) (Is it me, or does this one sound more like Je suis venu te dire?)

In other news, I made a podcast for KX Radio with all kinds of Serge-tracks. Go HERE

Sophie Galet

  • Posted on 03/03/2011
  • /Under Musique

Ma place is the very pretty, elegant new single by Liege-based singer Sophie Galet. Her new (second) album Stella Polaris will be released in October. Download for free in exchange of your email-adress. HERE.

← Newer Posts
Older Posts →