Today was a beautiful day, lots and lots of sunshine. And then this record fell on my doormat. Cuban superstar Raul Paz together with lovely French vocal-trickster Camille (in Spanish, ain’t she versatile). The record’s called Carnaval, and that’s what it is!
Raul Paz & Camille – Carnaval
When the female choir rises up, it’s quite easy to see Ceci est mon corps as a song that Gainsbourg never recorded for his masterpiece Melody Nelson. Some guitarriffs come really close to those on that album. That said, it’s a haunting ballad in it’s own right, with enough charm (and sexiness) to make a lasting impression. Lafille (don’t know her real name) chanes on her debutalbum from bratty poprock (Aujourd’hui J’me Lave Pas) to touching ballads (J’ai Rencontré Quelqu’un Qui Te Ressemble). I Wanna Be Your Cat is dreadful, but the two closing tracks Ceci est mon corps and the titletrack Lafille tout attaché(é) are absolutely brilliant. An album for the yearlists.
Lafille – Ceci est mon corps
Exclusive content on FillesSourires, a live-recording of Flemish singer/actor Evi de Jean doing Serge’s Le poinconneur. With this song she won the prize of the public of Le Concours de la Chanson, an acclaimed contest for (fairly) young singers singing French songs. The songs starts with Evi telling a story about taking the train from Amsterdam to Antwerp to visit her grandmother. In Belgium her ticket got punched by a train conductor – an odd thing, in these computerized times. It reminded her of Serge’s Le poinconneur des Lilas. Accompanied by a violinist and pianist she sings a slow, seductive version that picks up in a train-like fashion when the lyrics talk about the punching of the tickets. Nice touch. More on the impressive curriculum vitae of Evi here. The recording was made by Anton van Halderen for Het Chanson.
Evi de Jean – Le poinconneur des Lilas
Charles Baudelaire inspired many musicians, from pop to classical. His book of poetry Les fleurs du mal is best known, containing poems touching on lesbianism, sex, death and wine. Gainsbourg was a fan, obviously, and in the past artists like J-L Murat, AS Dragon and The Cure paid tribute. And now Dutch band Kashmir Boots set Tristesse de la lune to music. Guido of KB writes: ‘I recorded this with my ex-girlfriend Sarah, who is French and with whom I had a pretty intense relationship. We broke up, but saw each other recently and recorded this. Sarah loves French poetry, especially Baudelaire and Rimbaud. It’s short, but sweet. We might do this again.’
Kashmir Boots – Tristesse de la lune
Serge Gainsbourg – Baudelaire
Brune is a new, charcoal-eyed beauty on the Filles-front. Yes, that’s Brune, not BB Brunes or Paris Brune – it didn’t help that Brune’s song is called Paris while googling (though not as difficult as trying to find the band C++). Brune’s voice sounds a lot like Cécile Hercule’s, which is a good thing. If you go to her Myspace you can hear the lovely L’ Hiver en été, also available on the upcoming EP (see an acoustic version here). Here’s the video for Paris. [Thanks John]
Brune – Paris
Brandspanking new English song by CdP and a friend. Hope this doesn’t mean she will steer away from singing in English. Nice to watch, though. This is nice too. [Thanks Tim]
A little birdie pointed me to this Mediafire-file, containing a bootlegrecording of a concert of Coralie Clément in Buenos Aires. Grab it quickly before it disappears. You can hear our charming heroine (she watches over this blog) do mostly songs from her last album Toy Store, and some from earlier recordings (alas very few from her brilliant debut). Posted here is her coverversion of Benjamin Biolay’s Jardin d’Hiver. The picture is borrowed from Franca, who photographed Coralie in Sao Paulo.
Coralie Clément – Jardin d’hiver (live in Buenos Aires)
We at FillesSourires, we love Cécile Hercule to death. Her album is great, her girlie, supersexy voice is classic fillesfragiles-singing and her quirky songs are like pretty presents. When she’s not doing solo-shows, she’s a backup singer for Mickey3D and David Tétard. The latter released a new album and his duet with Cécile is one of the best songs on the albums. Now, D’s voice is an acquired taste, to me he sounds like he needs to go to the bathroom really bad but has to finish the song before he’s allowed. But his rocksongs are solid, and if you allow Cécile to have her own carreer, I’m all for it.
David Tétard & Cécile Hercule – La beauté du geste
Georges Brassens in English, now there’s a challenge. His songs and poetryhas been translated, but very seldomly sung in English. Pierre de Gaillande, who has a French father and an American mom, is giving it a try on his album Bad Reputation. Why Brassens in this day ‘n age? Quote from the bio: ‘Brassens had no interest in being fashionable or cool, and yet defined coolness in a way that resonates for de Gaillande in our day and age. For de Gaillande, it boils down to language: “Using proper grammar, good spelling, and eloquent language is subversive and even sexy in this era of Tea-Party talk,” de Gaillande smiles. “That’s part of the mission of this project: to bring back that kind of sexy. I think it’s the hippest thing I’ve ever done. I draw inspiration from Brassens’ attitude: He didn’t care what people thought. He just got the poetry out there. “‘
The music stays close to the original, with the skipping rhythm and acoustic guitar, Pierre’s voice reminds me of Tom Robinson’s – it has the right amount of irony and sarcasm to sing Georges’ songs. On one song he gets help from FillesSourires-heroine Keren Ann, as far as I know the first time KA sings a GB chanson. The full album will be released on June 8.
Pierre de Gaillande & Keren Ann – To Die for Your Ideas
See the original version here.