The second Catherine starts singing, you’ll know why I’m posting about Belgian trio Mièle. Her voice is like cutting through a big, soft, pastel-coloured, supersweet birthdaycake. The band is part of the tres sympathique Humty Dumpty Records (they also house Françoiz Breut), they just released their second album. Music-wise, they’re like the Walloon cousins of Peppermoon (more on that trio later this week), but a little rougher on the edges. Find out more here.
Mièle – Chateaux de sable
Les filles n’ont aucun degout? Serge caresse tendresse style, when smoking was still allowed in the bar of his favorite … erm, sauna.
L’armée des ombres, filmed in 1969, was Jean-Pierre Melville’s gloomy and highly gripping account of the Résistance featuring Lino Ventura (see right) in one of his finest roles – a sombre, sober movie with one of the most hopeless endings in French cinema history. The film was scored by the relatively unknown Éric Demarsan who also wrote the music for the TV series Belle et Sébastien (which obviously quite impressed some British folk popsters), and Melville’s bleak caper movie Le cercle rouge. Demarsan’s intricately crafted, highly accomplished bande originale for L’armée des ombres culminates in his Thème de Gerbier, evolving from a painfully melancholic piano melody into a heartbreakingly beautiful landscape of the French soul.
Éric Demarsan – Thème de Gerbier
About two weeks ago, we already posted a live version of Zaz’s splendid Piaf cover Dans la rue here. Since she with the husky voice is a dedicated Gainsbourg aficionado as well, she also played a sparse, and highly intense manouche-style version of Serge’s Ces petits riens during the same gig, backed by bassist Mathieu Verlot and guitarist Guillaume Juhel. You will find this cover neither on her recent no. 1 album nor anywhere on the net. The song was recorded during an intimate live performance at MDR radio station, Halle, Germany, with an audience of ten (!) handpicked and damn lucky guests.
Ces petits riens, written in 1964, may not be among the most popular Gainsbourg chansons, but has been covered by several high-class artists. Serge’s own version, using a typewriter as rhythm instrument, is surely the coolest; he’s on the Deneuve version as well. Here’s both, along with a bunch of other adaptations, including Carla’s English language version … and Guuz might have a few other ones up his sleeve.
Serge Gainsbourg – Ces petits riens
Catherine Deneuve – Ces petits riens
Christiane Canavese – Ces petits riens
Pierre-Alain Goualch – Ces petits riens
Jane Birkin – Ces petits riens
Stacey Kent – Ces petits riens
Zizi Jeanmaire – Ces petits riens
Angélique Kidjo – Ces petits riens
Francoise Hardy – Ces petits riens
Carla Bruni – Those Little Things
Combining traditional Arabic and African elements with Disco, Drum ’n Bass, and Hindi Pop, Belgium-born singer Natacha Atlas features as
one of the premières divas of the cha’abi moderne, a term she invented herself to describe her style. Natacha cooperated with colleagues such as Peter Gabriel, Nigel Kennedy, and Jean-Michel Jarre, but if those names aren’t really your cup of tea, also with British enfant terrible Jah Wobble or French world music entrepreneurs Les Négresses Vertes. She explains the concept of her brand new, tenth album here – last not least, Mounqaliba (In a State of Reversal) stars Le cor, le vent, a fine after-hours piece with wistful accordion, and La nuit est sur la ville, a lightly orient-ified cover version of Francoise Hardy’s 1964 ballad.
Natacha Atlas – Le cor, le vent
Natacha Atlas – La nuit est sur la ville
On her 1998 album Gedida, Natacha already covered another Hardy chanson, the widely popular Mon amie la rose, transferring Hardy’s Gallic teenage melancholy to the dancefloor of Arabian Nights.
Natacha Atlas – Mon amie la rose (Radio Mix)
Guestpost! FransS on Fabienne:
“She’s exactly your ‘thing, right?” With that sentence Guuzbourg tried to convince me to write a guest post on Fabienne Delsol’s new album On my mind. And yes, I have to agree, I love the girly retro sixties jangling sound of Fabienne and her colleagues like April March and Holly Golightly. The big plus: Fabienne is really French.
Born in Limoges, Fabienne left for the UK around 1995 to become the singer of The Bristols, one of the many UK garage bands of that period. With that band she released two albums before going solo in 2003. As a solo singer she released two albums No Time For Sorrows (2003) and Between You And Me (2007). Both albums were filled with songs in French and English (but with a lovely French accent that gives French singers in English that certain “je ne sais quoi”). Sweet lovely songs that directly reminds you of early British Sixties music (organs!, guitars! melodies!) and authentic French yé-yé.
On her new album Fabienne Delsol sounds a bit different. Still English and French songs, still a lovely authentic sixties sound, but it is like she moved in time from 1965/66 to 1968/69. Some more psychedelic sounds in the music, more melancholy in the lyrics. It is all a bit darker, or maybe better a bit more mature. This isn’t a France Gall anymore you could fool with Les Succettes, this is a young woman who already had her share. When her earlier albums were spring and summer albums, with this one Fabienne Delsol has arrived in the autumn. And given the weather outside, On my mind deserves a lot of playing time in the coming months.
Fabienne Delsol – Pas adieu
You downloaded the song. Now see the video:
In other news: find a free mp3 of a loud-beautiful French duet between New York hipsters Violens and Charlift here.
No shortage of gorgeous French actresses who moonlight as a singer. Claire Keim has an impressive filmography (here), and sang before, for instance en duo with Marc Lavoine (here). The mother of one (and girlfriend of footballeur Bixente Lizarazu) recorded an album that will be released in November. The first single is a pleasent strummer, that fits Claire’s fragile voice. There’s a Francis Cabrel-song on the album, but most songs she wrote all by herself. See the video for ça depend here. Oh, and the next French actress to start a recording career is Mélanie Laurent. Her album will be out next spring.
Jane Birkin’s youngest daughter Lou Doillon in a video for French fashion designer Vanessa Bruno. Shame they did not use French music, though Efterklang is a great band.
Madjo named herself after two former owners of the house she was raised in, Madeleine and Joseph. There’s an African bloodline in her family and although she’s from France (Evian), she’s just not that into chansons. She likes dusty rootsrock (Calexico, Iron and Wine), moody electronica (Massive Attack, Anja Garbarek) and the grand dames of soul (Billie, Nina). She made an impression with her first EP, released last year, sporting a Leadbelly cover. On her first album, just out, she sings in French and English, with a voice that reminds me of Yael Naim. The music is a mix of the influences just mentioned, but because of her remarkable voice and the great production (Sebastien Lafargue, who also worked with Valerie Leuilliot), Trapdoor is an album you really would want to hear. Of course I wish she sang in French some more. But, contrary to other French singers, the English songs are as good as the French ones.
Madjo – Cracheur de feu