You saw the tracklist of the upcoming Nouvelle Vague-cd. But, like me, you don’t know all the songs Marc and his merry band of filles have covered. So FransS (the guy without whom this blog wouldn’t be as good as it is) looked in every nook ‘n cranny of the interwebs and zipped up the tracks by TC Matic, Etienne Daho, Mano Negra, Marie France, Lio, et al. Download that zip from HERE (hotfile)
Jane Birkin mashed with Johannes Brahms. With some familiair breaks and orchestral stabs added. ‘Baby Brahms’ is a mash-up of Birkin’s Baby Alone in Babylone and Brahms’ Symphony #3 In F, Opus 90. As you know, Serge Gainsbourg frequently used classical theme’s for his songs, a little Chopin for Lemon Incest, some Dvorak for Initials BB. And Brahms for Babylone. The mash was especially made for the FillesSourires.com birthday by Dutch dj Von Rosenthal de la Vegaz and production-wizard Stefan Schmid (of this band). Dj Von Rosenthal uses aria’s and études instead of house and techno to get the crowd going. Classical purists hate it, I think his mix-cd Nouvelle Classique is a very fine way to spend your Sunday morning with (preferably in bed, and not alone). You can listen to other mash-ups and that Nouvelle Classique mix here.
Birkin vs Brahms – Baby Brahms (Von Rosenthal de la Vegaz mash-up)
Feast your eyes on this. Out in November.
1. Voilà les anges (orig. Gamine) – Coeur de Pirate
2. Week-end à Rome (orig. Etienne Daho) – Vanessa Paradis feat. Etienne Daho
3. Amoureux solitaires (orig. Lio) – Hugh Coltman
4. Anne cherchait l’amour (orig. Elli & Jacno) – Julien Doré
5. Je suis déjà partie (orig. Taxi Girl) – Coralie Clément
6. L’aventurier (orig. Indochine) – Helena Noguerra
7. Les ailes de verre (orig. Marc Seberg) – Jeanne Cherhal
8. Mala Vida (orig. Mano Negra) – Olivia Ruiz
9. Déréglée (orig. Marie France) – Mélanie Pain
10. Ophélie (orig. Jad Wio) – Yelle
11. Oublions l’Amérique (orig. Wunderbach) – Nadeah Miranda
12. Putain Putain (orig. TC Matic) – Camille
13. Sandy Sandy (orig. Les Dogs) – Soko
14. So young but so cold (orig. Kas Product) – Charlie Winston
15. Sur ma mob (orig. Lili Drop) – Mareva Galanter
16. Marcia Baila (orig. Rita Mitsouko) – Adrienne Pauly
17 . Où veux-tu que j’regarde (orig. Noir Désir)- Emilie Loizeau
18. Two people in a room (orig. Stephan Eicher) – Cocoon
Gorgeous Juliette Wathieu is Mademoiselle Nineteen, the newest member of the Freaksville Records family to help make the world a little more poptastic. But wait a minute, you say, the art lover that you are, didn’t artist Charlotte Beaudry do a project called Mademoiselle Nineteen? Not only that, Julliette posed for Beaudry. See the very nice portraits here.
On this blog you can read all about Juliette, that she’s the brother of The Mash-singer Marc, that she’s on Youtube doing a Feist-cover, that genius songwriter Jacques Duvall wrote her first single together with Freaksville-head honcho Benjamin Schoos (aka Miam Monster Miam)… which of course means that a comparison to Lio isn’t that far off. In fact, Je ne vois que vous is on par with any of the best Lio singles out there. Just saying.
Mademoiselle Nineteen – Je ne vois que vous
The very sensual Helena Noguerra (Lio’s sister!) was featured on Filles Sourires many, many times. But never with this video, or this song from the brilliant, yet overlooked Ollano album (= Marc Collin & Xavier Jamaux).
Ollano – Latitudes (English version)
Ollano – Latitudes (French version)
There is an Air-remix for this track too, here.
Another repost of a great song that graced this blog over de past 5 years.
Yep, that’s her: Sophie Auster, the very good looking daughter of writer Paul Auster. He got his fame from novels like Oracle Night, and screenplays for the Brooklyn-hailing movies Blue in the Face and Smoke (William Hurt plays Auster). Her dad is convinced she’s hugely talented (she followed acting and singing lessons at Lee Strasberg Institute, and played in movies like She’s Loves Me) so her got her in contact with musicians of the band One Ring Zero, who set music to lyrics by Sophie, and poems by French poets – translated by Paul. Ambitious yes, but executed stylish. Fall 2005, the debut album by Sophie (titelless) was released. One poem was kept French, Le Pont Mirabeau by G. Appolinaire. French paper Libération wrote that Sophie’s adaptation was better than Leo Ferré’s. Sophie is working on a new album. Listen to new songs here.
Sophie Auster – Le Pont Mirabeau
Francois de Roubaix, film composer extraordinaire, drowned in November 1975 near the coast of Tenerife. Take a walk across the Cimétiere d’Arona, watch, and listen.
If you’re familiar with German language, you can also listen to the sonorous voice of Christian Gutowski telling the story of Francois de Roubaix, including a few excerpts from Roubaix’s works. I wrote this piece in May 2010 for MDR radio, Germany.
Francois de Roubaix & The Sea: A Love Story
Guuz probably recalls when I posted this first, maybe three or four years ago. Gee, Joanna. I’m still in love with her.
She had the looks of a Francoise Hardy with sex: Canadian born actress Joanna Shimkus, who appeared in only two handful of movies (after those, Sidney Poitier married her right from the spot). Robert Enrico’s classic Les Aventuriers (1967) made her immortal: a melancholy ménage a trois with her torn between Delon and Lino Ventura, the finest romantic triangle movie of them all, miles above and lots more fun than Truffaut’s Jules et Jim. The soundtrack is by composer wizard Francois de Roubaix, kind of a French Morricone of the 60s who scored most gallic noir movies of the time, an artist of pure genius who drowned near Tenerife in 1975. Joanna’s probably only recorded song is a tune from Les Aventuriers, but not in the (strictly instrumental scored) movie – a wonderfully laid-back campfire version, simply irresistible.
Joanna Shimkus – Les Aventuriers
As for her only recorded song, I was wrong. Loin is a tender sweeper from Robert Enrico’s movie Tante Zita, provided then by an FS friend, and in Ces mots stupides Joanna teamed up with Sacha Distel (!) for the French version of Something Stupid, immortalized by Nancy Sinatra and her blue-eyed daddy in September 1967.
Joanna Shimkus – Loin
Joanna Shimkus & Sacha Distel – Ces mots stupides
I’ve had many crushes on female singers posted on this blog. Mauve was one of them. She vanished into thin air. Such a shame. The piece below was posted in 2006.
Chère Mauve,
No, your song A La Vie A La Mort is not in the Filles Sourires 15. Why? Because it is hors categorie. When I heard it the for the first time on your MySpace-site, I fell in love. Completely: butterflies in my belly, dreamy gaze, the urge to light up 100 candles, throw rosepetals on the floor and read Byron-poems. The works.
Your ultra-sexy, husky voice, the dramatic piano, the fuzzguitar, the slow, sultry rhythm: even when I try to describe it, it tingles everywhere. The short video that was made for the song, shows a gorgeous, doe-eyed girl in a white dress: a little girl lost. I’ve watched it probably 50 times – and still get annoyed when the film ends before the song ends. What happened? Ran out of tape? Did it become to emotional for you? Was the cameraman too hot ‘n bothered?
There’s a lot of questions regarding you. There not a scrap of biographical information, the only thing I know is that you’re living in Paris, and that you and a bunch of great musicians and even a better producer (is that him, the backing vocals on Boire a la Source?) made at least two wonderful, very filmic tracks. Very Air-working-with-Charlotte, Guy Chambers & Sophie Hunter or J-L Murat & Jenifer Charles. Among the things you love, stated on your MySpace-site, are artists like Scissor Sisters, Nico, Uffie, Joy Division, Satie, Tchaikowsky (you don’t say, with all those dramatic pianochords) and post pre-90’s Madonna. So: you like to dress up, boogie down and be moved to tears. But that’s about all I (we) get to know. Google draws blanks. You like to tease: almost every message you’ve send me, ends with sentences like ‘French kiss’, or ‘Je t’embrasse’. Makes the butterflies go nuts,I can tell you that. It took a while before I got the mp3’s of your songs, which I think you did on purpose: the hunt is better than the catch. So please, stay as mysterious as long as possible. But keep wowing me (us) with beautiful songs and beautiful pictures.
Mauve – A la vie a la mort
Mauve – Boire a la source
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