Thought we’d lost her, but no, Amelie with the crayons returns with an new album, out October 8. Preview on Bandcamp:
Dawn Landes
A Kentucky-girl with a husky voice who fell in love with France, who learned to speak French by listening to French music and finally released a French EP. Dawn Landes‘ story in a nutshell. The countryfied singer, who released two albums on France-based label Fargo, got help from (among others) Karen Lohier of Katel, Tunde from TV On The Radio and Matthew C. from Nada Surf. With the latter, she sings a pretty duet. The EP closes with a Georges Brassens cover, and features touches of doo-wop, country, jazz and Françoise Hardy-style weepers. Not all songs are great (not a big fan of La Vie Au Lasso), but that duet is just lovely. The EP comes with a book of illustrations by Dawn.
Dawn Landes & Matthew Caws – L’ingénue
Liminanas
If Serge Gainsbourg had written songs with The Velvet Underground, it might have sounded like The Liminanas. Somebody else wrote that, but it’s a great way to describe the sultry, fuzz-drenched basement-sound of the trio from Perpignan. Their second album Crystal Anis is out, and the second you hear the bass in Ballade pour Clive, you’ll get the Gainsbourg-reference. This is music to listen to with darkdarkdark-shades on, while Super8-porn is being shown on the screen in the humid cellar, the leather-clad crowd is getting anxious yet you’re keeping it cool. You might dance. Horizontally or vertical, maybe both. Gimme another shot, barkeep!
See a video for an English track from their debut album here.
Listen to their Beach Boys cover here
The Liminanas – Ballade pour Clive
June Caravel
So this is how the story goes: “For June Caravel, a vocal explorer born and raised in Paris, singing in English had always been the obvious, natural way. She even left France for the UK in 2009 to stop hearing that nagging, repetitive question: “How is it you don’t sing in French?” Until that fateful day in 2011 she met compatriot Pierre Carrey. After an evening of boozing and singing where there was no stopping June’s vibrant adlibs, Pierre jokingly told her ‘J’te ramène à la boutique, si tu continues’ (I’ll return you to the store if you carry on) which sounded like perfect lyrics for a new song in French.”
To cut a long email short, June (who we know from her very cool London tribute) then recorded songs in German, Italian, Spanish and she even re-did a cantata by Bach – using only her voice. If this all sounds a bit Camille to you, it’s ’cause that’s an obvious reference. But June’s June, not a copycat. She can arouse you, make you wanna dance, make you smile, tap your toes, etcetera. I’m in awe.
Listen to some excerpts here.
June Caravel – J’te ramène à la boutique
Granville
Californian fuzz mixed with Normandic charm – that’s Granville. A quartet, Melissa Dubourg is the female singer. They made a few singles, notably Slow (great video), and the just released Jersey b/w La Ville Sauvage (see Bandcamp). They cite Best Coast and Françoise Hardy as influences. Keep an eye on’m! Listen to a Filles & Garçons remix here. Acoustic session here.
New Francoiz Breut video
First single from her upcoming new album. This is the orginal version.
New Fanny Bloom video
Fanny Bloom || Tes bijoux from Dare To Care Records on Vimeo.
And in other news: Vanessa Paradis will sing a duet with Benjamin Biolay on his upcoming (November) album!
Chansons d’été (4): Arthur Honegger
In January 1920, a Parisian journalist named Henri Collet proclaimed Les Six Francais, soon to be known as Groupe des Six, bracketing six French composers together as the avantgarde of the new decade. One of the members was then 25-year-old Arthur Honegger, who (unlike the others) admired Wagner and Debussy, and put on his kids gloves when if came to iconoclasm: »There’s no point knocking down doors you can open«, he would state 30 years later. In the summer of the same year, he wrote his ultra romantic Pastorale d’été, Poème symphonique, epigraphed by a line from Rimbaud: »J’ai embrassé l’aube d’été …« One flute, one oboe, one clarinet, one bassoon, one horn, plus strings: This is the first light of a warm summer day, and there’s few chances it will get more beautiful again.
Orchestre National de l’ORTF/ conducted by Jean Martignon – Pastorale d´été
Chansons d’été (3): James Taylor
Long ago and far away, in a time they called the 70s, each and every girl had the same four LPs standing beside her record player: Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cat Stevens’s Tea for the Tillerman, Neil Young’s Harvest, and of course James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James. Taylor, who even made it to the cover of Time magazine then, was the folk Jesus of the American soft rock scene, a tortured messiah who suffered for all the moonlight ladies that wanted to spend him comfort and lovin’ care. His probably bleakest album, 1979’s Flag, also contains the only song Taylor ever wrote in French: undeniably a fine, contemplative one with end of summer feel, actually not sounding like James Taylor, but like Jimmy Buffett in his most laidback ballad moments.
James Taylor – Chanson Française