Album review

Yann Tiersen

Les Retrouvailles

Paris 

27/05/2005 - 

How do you mix the solitude needed to compose with the company needed to exchange ideas? You will probably find the answer on Yann Tiersen's new album, where dreamy melodies mix it up with vocals from the likes of Miossec, Dominique A, Stuart Staples, (Tindersticks) Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins) and Jane Birkin.

"I'd have loved to do something with Roger Hodgson (ex-Supertramp), and in fact we'd planned it for this album, but he'd already done something with Dan Ar Braz (of Excalibur), so we thought it was best to leave it for another time." Yann Tiersen has always been keen on meeting and collaborating with other artists, as he had already done on Black Session in 1999 where he gathered together people like Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), Dominique A, The Married Monk, the Têtes Raides, Mathieu Boogaerts and Francoiz Breut. And later, in 2004, he duetted with the American singer and guitarist Shannon Wright. Master of the violin and xylophone, Yann Tiersen is something of a bridge between Celtic and American traditions, and admits that one of his wildest dreams would be to meet up with… "the Boss, I'd love to work with Springsteen on an album with the same acoustic ambience as Nebraska or his latest record Devils and Dust, but he never works with anyone, so…"

Nonetheless, Yann Tiersen has nothing to complain about when it comes to collaborations. And although paradoxically Les retrouvailles was conceived and recorded for the most part in isolation on the île d’Ouessant off the tip of Brittany, a whole bunch of artists lend their voices to this ex-punk's new melodies. "Let's say that I wanted to get back to the way I recorded Phare which I recorded by myself. I hate having to direct other people and tell them what they should or shouldn't be doing. So when you're all alone you don't have the same constraints."

A film of the proceedings, La traversée, was made by young director Aurélie du Boys, and the DVD is packaged along with the album. "As a general rule, I'm not much of a fan of music DVDs and films of performances. There's got to be a reason to film a concert, it has to push things forward. On this film, straight after I'd finished recording the songs, I wanted to fix the moment, immortalise it on film as something freshly created with each of the different participants: Jane (Birkin), Liz (Frazer) Dominique (A) or Christophe (Miossec)…  That's how this sort of musical documentary came together where you see the musician struggling with the computer, fine-tuning the recording, smoking a cigarette against the sea spray of Ouessant or riding a scooter down the island's pebbly tracks. It's the magic moment of a concert filmed in an unusual spot in a hotel, Le Vauban, in Brest, where the walls still resonate to the sounds of the melodies of Western, Le Matin or A ceux qui sont malades par mer calme.

Plus d'hiver

Le jour de l’ouverture is something of a gem where the three Breton brothers in arms Tiersen, A and Miossec finally get together having been all three associated with the rebirth of a certain "minimalist rock". One of the other moving moments for Yann Tiersen is his encounter with Jane Birkin on Plus d’Hiver, an enigmatic track which the record company calls the "most committed" of Yann Tiersen's repertoire. It denounces a world entirely devoted to the economic enterprise: "I can't stand living in an ultra-capitalist world where everything revolves around money and self-interest. You have the impression you're living under Pétain. This system is doomed to failure. We're reduced to the state of consumers and exploit others for our own consumption. I hope that things will change, will reverse, and others will eventually benefit from us." In the meantime, the thin yet captivating voice of Jane Birkin works brilliantly against Tiersen's piano. "For the Jane Birkin song, I love the lyric but I didn't want to sing it. She'd asked me to do something for her future DVD entitled "Rendez vous manqué" (missed rendezvous), so I decided to make a rendezvous with her after all."

There is nothing premeditated about Tiersen's writing or the choice of singers. "Most of the time it's a question of chance, except when I'm a fan of someone's voice which was the case with Liz Fraser. I've long been a fan of the Cocteau Twins and my admiration goes beyond just her voice. Liz's personality and charisma is key to the Cocteau Twins, and her charisma and attitude is what I love." No doubt listeners of this album will soon fall under the charm as well.

Yann Tiersen Les retrouvailles Labels 2005
DVD La traversée Labels 2005

Frédéric  Garat

Translation : Hugo  Wilcken