It's official, French pop is 'in' these days - and even showing signs of becoming the next big thing! After having gained a positive image in the 90s thanks to French house and 'world' music made in France, French sounds are now enjoying renewed success in the international media with the emergence of a new movement dubbed 'nouvelle chanson.' And now the question on everyone's lips is: will this new generation of singers manage to break down the language barrier that has blocked French music exports in the past?
Whatever the case, 'nouvelle chanson' has already made an impact in Germany. In its October issue, the monthly German music mag. Intro turned the spotlight on what it called the "new French school," its critic writing that "when you hear the word 'chanson' in Germany, this film automatically starts running in your head. The film stars men in sharp 50s and 60s suits, smoking filterless cigarettes and beautiful women like Brigitte Bardot." But who, asks Intro, are "the heirs of this golden age?"
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Well, the hunt should perhaps begin in Brittany, a region which proved to be a veritable hotbed of musical talent in the early 80s. Now it's back in the spotlight once again, the "Nantes scene" having produced a wealth of French artists including Brest-born Yann Tiersen "the other star of (the film) Amélie Poulain." Then there's the "ultra-glamorous Philippe Katerine." The new French pop map also includes Jérôme Minière (born in the French town of Orléans, but now based in Montreal), Calais-born Benjamin Biolay ("a dandy married to Catherine Deneuve's daughter Chiara Mastroianni") and Françoiz Breut from Cherbourg - not to mention Mathieu Boogaerts, Pascal Parisot, Vincent Delerm and Albin de la Simone.
Talking of Françoiz Breut, the Cherbourgoise has just brought out a new album entitled Une saison volée (Tôt ou tard/Warner). The Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (19/10) hails Mademoiselle Breut as a worthy representative of "nouvelle chanson," admiring her "pleasantly melancholic" sound. The Australian newspaper The Age (23/10) goes even further in its praise, claiming that the young singer manages "to create the illusion of singing to an audience of one - you." Their writer believes Françoiz Breut "invokes a modern Francois Hardy", although she "expresses a far wider gamut of atmosphere and emotion."
Meanwhile, Arthur H – whose father, Jacques Higelin, is currently touring France with a tribute to legendary French 'chanson' star Charles Trenet – re-emerged on the recording front last month with a new album, Adieu Tristesse (released on Polydor). And he is now packing his bags and heading off for Spain. The Spanish press, picking up on a wire from the EFE press agency (26/10), informed readers that "the French musician, singer and songwriter Arthur H will be playing his one and only show in Spain on 11 November." The lucky few will get to see the French star at the Palacio de los Deportos in Barcelona.
As for hip young Parisian 'chanteur'
Sébastien Tellier, he inhabits his own particular corner of the new French 'chanson' galaxy. Tellier, who admits to being a big fan of Syd Barrett and Robert Wyatt, goes in for a very personal form of music which experiments with several different styles. And his image is as bizarre as his genre-bending sound. National British daily newspaper
The Telegraph (6/10) recently investigated the Tellier phenomenon. "He has a distinctly wild look ... a scraggly Jesus beard and unkempt brown hair," writes the Telegraph critic. As for
La Ritournelle, a single taken from Tellier's album
Politics (released on Record Makers), "Many sober critics have described it as the most powerfully emotional song to hit the dancefloor since Massive Attack's
Unfinished Sympathy." Praise indeed, but the rest of Tellier's album is rather more disconcerting. "It's a bizarre concept album about the human cost of grand political victories and Tellier's fascination with dictatorial figures." "In this album, (the singer says), I imagined myself to be a dictator figure. This is my dream! Before I die I would very much like to be a sect leader - give me five years. I like the idea of one guy, a complete "egoist", directing innocent people."
Meanwhile, Philippe Katerine has been experimenting with a cutting-edge French pop sound every bit as bizarre as Tellier's. His new concept album
Robots après tout (released on Rosebud) left the critic from the Canadian newspaper
La Presse (16/10) "feeling strangely uneasy." "Katerine, who appears to have become agoraphobic, locked himself away in his bedroom with a rhythm box to create a series of electronic structures to support his paranoid (
Le Train de 19 heures), raw and disturbing (
Excuse-moi) and, at times, completely barmy lyrics (
Au Louxor). His songs verge on the absurd, which appears to be the only constant theme in his writing. The French dandy (who seems to be trying to break away from his image with a new look modelled on the frankly hideous album cover) recruited Renaud Létang and Gonzales to polish his skeletal arrangements on
Robots." Love it or loathe it, it can't be denied that by breaking all the classic rules, French pop has proved to be one of the surprise success stories this autumn!
