Musique

Under the Radar (8): Liz Cherhal

Well not quite actually because Sylvester put her on his Yearlist, but Liz Cherhal’s album remained under the radar this year. But I guess, being Jeanne Cherhal’s sister she is used to it.. (go here for a rare video of the two siters together).

In 2010 she worked together with boyfriend Alexis HK on a children’s project : “Ronchonchon et Compagnie”, and in 2011 there finally was a new album of her own: “Il est arrivé quelque chose“.
Some of the songs on this album we already knew for her earlier EP, but that was from 2008 already, so it was high time to come with something new. And as we hoped for, on “Il est arrivé quelque chose” she brings us the things she excels in: accordion, humour and well written songs.
In one of Sylvester’s favourites, you can hear all that:

Liz Cherhal – Quand Je Regarde La Mer

Under the Radar (7): Albrecht Mayer

  • Posted on 15/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

In Woody Allen’s latest movie Midnight in Paris, Marion Cotillard’s supersexy character claims that she wants to live in the Belle Époque, France’s Impressionist L’Age d’Or before World War I. On his recent album Bonjour Paris, German oboist Albrecht Mayer revisits those tranquil boulevards of Claude Debussy – who thought that the term Impressionism was invented by imbecile critics –, Jean Français, Vincent d’Indy, or Reynaldo Hahn (see pic), lover of Marcel Proust and probably the hero of his unfinished novel Jean Santeuil. À Chloris, mélodie sur un poème de Théophile de Viau, originally composed for voice and piano, is arranged for solo oboe on Mayer’s album, now sounding like a Baroque remembrance – a fine lyrical finale for Mayer’s album, the piece was actually written in 1913, when the Beautiful Era already had been swept away by history.

Albrecht Mayer – À Chloris

Covers Deluxe: All in the Family

  • Posted on 15/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

Calypso singer Sir Lancelot, role model of Harry Belafonte, wrote the reggae/ ska classic Shame and Scandal in the Family for Jacques Tourneur’s horror b-movie I Walked with a Zombie in 1943 – see here. Later the song was covered by Lance Percival, Peter Tosh, Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez, The Stylistics, The Blues Busters, or British ska popsters Madness, among others. Sacha Distel and Les Surfs recorded French lingo adaptations, as well as Les Gammas whose 1965 version sounds like a tourist warning not to mess around with firewater in the Carribean, including a delirious Hammond organ and a considerably cheezoid trumpet.

Merci à Monsieur Roy B.

Les Gammas – Scandale dans le famille

Carmen Maria Vega

  • Posted on 11/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

Gone are the long locks, away with the jolly atmosphere, Carmen Maria Vega now looks like an extra from the Rocky Horror show. Quite a change for the gipsyfied pop-star (call her the female Thomas Dutronc), who now adds beats to her music. Her sophomore album will be released later this year, last year a 4-track EP was up on iTunes for a few weeks. Then it was gone. You can’t (well, I can’t) listen on her site anymore. But at FS, we have our ways of getting the good stuff. On that EP are two modern sounding popsongs – Sans Rien strays into Yelle-territory. Plus a slow blues and a track Zaz could’ve sung. The curiousity for that second album just got bigger.

Carmen Maria Vega – Sans rien

Le Freakiest Show: David B (French Return)

  • Posted on 08/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

David Bowie and France, that’s a long and strange story – his 1977 album Low was recorded at the legendary Château d’Herouville where he refused to sleep in the master bedroom since he thought it was haunted by the ghosts of former residents Chopin and George Sand; producer Tony Visconti took the chambre des fântomes instead. Seven years earlier, Bowie already had recorded an English language version of Jacques Brel’s Amsterdam, and for his Gallic version of Heroes see also Guuz’s post below. The sailors of Amsterdam have a slight return in Life on Mars, which Hitler-obsessed Alain Z. Kan adapted en Francais in 1973; Kan was last seen at a Parisian Metro station on April 14, 1990 and never reappeared again.

David Bowie – Amsterdam
David Bowie – Héros

Alain Kan – La vie en Mars
Keren Ann – Life on Mars

Lucien Midnight – Space Oddity

Cranky – David Bowie Cries for No One

FS Vintage: Anton Walbrook

  • Posted on 07/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

If you’re a movie aficionado surfing the net, you might already have stumbled across the fine blog Fuck Yeah Anton Walbrook. Fellow actor and movie historian Stephen Fry called Walbrook „one of the great forgotten actors of film“. Actually named Adolf Wohlbrück, the half Jewish scion of an Austrian dynasty of circus clowns changed his name for obvious reasons when exiled in England in the 30s; he hated the Nazis so much that he never even played one. Probably the most elegant actor of his generation, his best works were helmed by the most stylish directors of his time, among them Michael Powell, and of course Max Ophüls, for whom he played the raconteur in 1950’s La Ronde, also doing the movie’s unforgettable intro song. The voice of the girl is Simone Signoret’s.

Anton Walbrook – La Ronde

Under the Radar 6: Jasmin Tabatabai

  • Posted on 06/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

Germany’s adult pop fashion of the hour is the coffee table recycling of songs from the 20s to 40s – think Tukur, think Alsmann, and German actress Jasmin Tabatabai makes no exception. On her recent album Eine Frau, released last September, she covers songs by Hollaender, Tucholsky and others, all cushily bossa- or jazzified – by and large what Diana Krall or Norah Jones do, with less production value. Probably for reasons de chic, her lieder album also contains a French composition, La chanson d’Hélène, originally written by Philippe Sarde and Jean-Loup Dabadie for the 1970 movie Les choses de la vie. While the rest of Tabatabai’s album sounds, well, somewhat menopausal, her version of Hélène isn’t even that bad – just as clean and empty as a tumbler from a desolate dishwasher.

Jasmin Tabatabai – La chanson d’Hélène

Extra: Romy Schneider’s classic film chanson (w/ Michel Piccoli), plus a bunch of other worthwhile versions, including an English language one.

Romy Schneider – La chanson d’Hélène
Marina Celeste – La chanson d’Hélène
Francoiz Breut – La chanson d’Hélène
Berry – La chanson d’Hélène
Youn Sun Nah – La chanson d’Hélène
Dream Makers – Helen’s Song

Under the Radar 5: La Féline

  • Posted on 06/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

Le roi a fait battre tambour is a French song from the 17th Century (writer unknown), from the Saintonge region. The song is either about Louis XIV, the Sun King, and the death of one of his mistresses, or the poisoning of a mistress of king Henry IV. It was recorded by many, many artists: Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Anne Sylvestre and Nana Mouskouri. And by trio La Féline, Agnes, Xavier and Stephane, who are named after the 1942 movie La Féline. The trio released two EP’s this year. La Féline was featured on this blog (see here), but somehow we’ve missed those releases. The Echo EP, featuring Le roi a fait battre tambour, contains more covers: Julee Cruise’s Into the Night and John Leyton’s Johnny Remember Me. Plus a reworked La Féline original. Songs about death, references to Twin Peaks, Joe Meek-productions; you’ll get the atmospherics, don’t you? Dim the lights, goth up your dress, sway with La Féline.

La Féline – Le roi a fait battre tambour

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