Articles Written By: guuzbourg
Maria Due
Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, Astrud Gilberto, Stereolab, Billie Holiday…we like what sweet voiced Maria Due likes. The Norwegian singer just released a cover album (Lucky Fish) with songs by none of the artists just mentioned. But by The Cure, Canned Heat, Young Rascals and Van der Graaf Generator – not bad. Plus a very soothing French sung version of ‘Martine’ by Louis Philippe, that you can hear below:
See the original here. Thanks Joris Stereo for the tip.
Emma Solal
Emma Solal is a Paris-based chanteuse, whose debut album, Robes du Soir, was released in 2012. Her latest project is an EP of covers of Françoise Hardy songs, produced by Pierre Faa of French band Peppermoon. The EP, Messages Personnels is available on iTunes. For his blog The Widow Stanton, regular FS-contribuant Adrian Arratoon had a (very late) autumn rendezvous with Emma down the line from Paris to talk about her series of shows, the iconic singer, and making Hardy’s songs her own. Read Adrian’s interview HERE
Jean Ferrat tribute
In 2010, Jean Ferrat, aka The Red Bard, passed away. Last week, Des Airs de Liberté was released, a tribute of his songs by artists like Raphaël, Sanseverino and Natasha St. Pier. First single is Aimer a perdre la raison by Dionysos, featuring (of course) Babet. See that single here:
As is often the case with these kind of tributes, it’s a hit or miss affair. Nice versions by Raphael, Julien Doré, Dionysos, rather dull covers by Marc Lavoine, Gregoire and St Pier. Also on this compilation, the duet by Catherine Deneuve and Benjamin Biolay, that was used earlier in the movie Potiche:
Five years ago, Sky wrote this obituary for Ferrat.
Christine & the Queens, Victoires de la Musique
Christine & the Queens was (not ‘were’, since it’s only Christine/Heloise) the biggest winner at the recent Victoires de la Musique, France’s most prestigious music prize. All winners here. C&tQ won Best Female Artist and Best Video (for Saint Claude). See her perform her #1 Hit in Belgium:
Tess et le pop electro
Tess, she of Dutch chanson combo Tess & Les Moutons Magnifiques, lend her voice to the electropop experiments of Dutch producer L’Oeil de Moscou. This is the Elli & Jacno-worthy result:
Coeur de Pirate at Massey Hall
Mark Sullivan writes:
Massey Hall, Canada’s most prestigious music venue (in Toronto), which dates from 1894, hosted Coeur de Pirate on 31 May 2014. A 28-minute film of highlights of her concert has now been released on-line.
Any one who doubts that Béatrice Martin is the supreme writer and performer of popular music in her generation should look at this. Shot in black-and-white from several angles, and with perfect acoustic recording, this film takes us far beyond the thousands of amateur recordings of CdP that crowd Youtube. As amateur filming was not permitted, this is a unique record of a completely professional performance, with elegant bilingual introductions. It is so good that one can only hope that the full concert, which must have included as many songs again, will be issued on DVD.
There is a voice-over by Béatrice at the start, and the audience is seen entering over the sound of the first track. The songs shown are
Le Long de large
Francis
Ensemble
Golden Baby
Adieu
Place de la République
Comme les Enfants
Berceuse is played over the closing credits.
It is notable that (as the credits show) Coeur de Pirate has kept all four of her band for the whole six years of her career so far – Renaud Bastien, rhythm guitar (her lead musician), Emmanuel Éthier, lead guitar, Alexandre Gauthier, bass, and Julien Blais, drums. No wonder the quality is so high.
Stephanie Blanchoud
Stephanie Blanchoud is a Swiss-Belgian actress who released one album and an EP, but somehow managed to stay under the all-seeing eye(s) of this blog. Her new album’s on the way, this is the first single featuring Belgian superstar Daan, who sounds a bit like Bryan Ferry in this duet. Cool video too:
Listen to snippets of the upcoming album HERE
Christine remix
Merdenomdedieu this is great. Christine & the Queens in the Paradis (these guys) remix.
Petite Meller
A French artist that’s gaining attention in Holland (and beyond) right now is Petite Meller (real name Sivan Meller). She makes nouveau jazzy pop, wears heavy lolita-make up and sings like a young Vanessa Paradis. In fact, she covered VP’s Joe Le Taxi. Before going solo, she was part of Terry Poison, a band that was under my radar during their existence. Dirty electropop song Comme Ci Comme Ca was a hit, apparently.
To quote The Guardian:
“Don’t be fooled by the cutesy hiccup or the flirtation with Lolita chic, though – Ms Meller is a philosophy postgraduate currently studying for her masters. She’s a big fan of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and his theories on the libidinal subconscious (who isn’t?) as well as Deleuze and Guattari and their exploration of the rhizomatic principle. A reality TV dunce she is not. She’s into French New Wave cinema and the Italian masters (Pasolini, Fellini, Visconti) and she even based the video to her single Backpack on Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou and L’Enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot. In it, she says, she and the director “were trying to capture aesthetic recollections of my childhood… [when] I was discovering my sexuality for the first time.”
Somehow I feel Petite Meller is stealing Yelle’s shine in making babypop electro, but current single Baby Love is undeniably infectious AND has a great video with giraffes: