Album review

Véronique Sanson

From A Butterfly To A Star

08/10/1999 - 

Véronique Sanson and Michel Berger's relationship goes back a long way - to the days when Michel produced Véronique's debut album Amoureuse in 1972. The pair were once lovers, but a whole series of towns and albums (Bahia, Vancouver, Hollywood) separated them before Berger's untimely death. On her 12th studio album D'un papillon à une étoile ("From A Butterfly To A Star"), Véronique Sanson pays a moving tribute to her late Pygmalion, recording her own version of Berger's famous - and not so famous - songs.

The bond that tied Véronique Sanson and Michel Berger together was the strongest bond of all, for the pair were joined at the hip when it came to all things musical. In the early days of their career, Véronique and Michel would spend hours together in front of the piano, rehearsing and re-rehearsing melody lines until their twin voices ended up with exactly the same phrasing. Musical partnership would slowly blossom into love, Véronique and Michel enjoying a short spell as the French music world's Ideal Couple until Véronique left France on the arm of American musician Stephen Stills (of Crosby, Stills and Nash fame). Now, almost eight years after Berger's untimely death, Véronique has chosen to face the past, recording a special tribute album to her late Pygmalion.

Sanson's new album "D'un papillon à une étoile" is not the standard kind of tribute album i.e. full of Greatest Hits. Sanson decided to move in a completely different direction on "D'un papillon à une étoile", recording new versions of a collection of Berger's more obscure work. These new versions are completely dominated by Sanson's unique voice, the distinctively light and airy vibrato which has been copied time and time again but never truly equalled. As for the themes of the songs featured on the new album, these revolve around the eternal Berger/Sanson story of love, suffering and loss.

Sanson must also have been extremely moved during the recording of "le Paradis blanc", an extraordinarily prescient song from Berger's last studio album recorded in 1990. A shiver is guaranteed to pass down anyone's spine on hearing the fatal lyrics: "Je m'en irai dormir dans le paradis blanc/où les nuits sont si longues qu'on en oublie le temps". (I'll go to sleep in the white heaven/where the nights are so long that time is forgotten).

Sanson's new version of "le Paradis blanc" is unbelievably moving, but the problem is that Berger fans who have spent endless hours listening and re-listening to the original song will find it almost impossible to forget Berger's first version. And, unfortunately, this is a recurrent problem on the entire album - all the more so as "D'un papillon à une étoile" features three of Berger's most famous hits including "le Prince des villes" and "Diego, libre dans sa tête".

Interestingly enough, "D'un papillon à une étoile" does feature contributions from two well-known French music stars. The only problem is that the listeners will have a major problem distinguishing Etienne Daho's backing vocals on "le Prince des villes" (is his voice deliberately 'under-modulated' or is there some technical problem going on?) It's a good job Daho's name features on the album credits, or his contribution might have passed completely unnoticed - much like Alain Chamfort's backing vocals on "le Paradis blanc". In fact, fans may be forgiven for thinking that Daho and Chamfort's contributions add very little to the whole, apart from the fact that both singers' voices are considered to belong to the same 'family' as Sanson and Berger's (albeit one key lower down the scale).

Listeners may have a tendency to switch off after "le Paradis blanc", but Sanson's album suddenly bursts into action again with a vibrant rendition of "L'amour est là" (lifted by a catchy rock-style orchestration). After this, "D'un papillon à une étoile" falls back into a quiet melancholy which is, perhaps, the most fitting tribute to the sweet sadness of Berger's mournful melodies.

Véronique Sanson D'un papillon à une étoile (Wea/Warner Music) 1999

After a series of concerts in Paris at the Olympia (18-30 January 2000), Véronique Sanson sets off on a major tour.

Pascale  Hamon

Translation : Julie  Street