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Album review


Jean-Louis Murat

Tristan recounts an age-old love story


Paris 

08/04/2008 - 

Jean-Louis Murat’s new album, Tristan, turns the clock back several centuries, retelling the tragic medieval tale of those famously star-crossed lovers Tristan and Isolde. Murat’s philosophical musings on the nature of impossible love are wrapped up in understated arrangements and poignant lyrics.

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Jean-Louis Murat was once notorious for lingering over his songwriting and releasing albums at a snail-like pace. But the Auvergne-based singer-songwriter appears to have upped his tempo in recent years. It took Murat just under six months to complete his new album, Tristan, the 24th album of his career (including his live work to date).

Murat had already tapped into a literary vein on Charles et Léo (released in October 2007), an album that combined the joint charms of the 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire and the late great French ‘chanson’ star Léo Ferré. This time round, Murat delves even further back into literary history, seeking inspiration in the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde. Needless to say, love is the overriding theme on his new album, and love of the fiercest kind that kindles the flame of passion and ultimately ends in ecstasy, suffering and death.
Murat does not approach his chosen subject with the lightest of touches. While lyrically and vocally he veers between the softly sensual and the overtly risqué, the tone throughout the album is set firmly on melancholy. On L’Amour en fuite Murat is in full despair mode, lamenting the fact that lovers are prepared to "knock at the door of happiness time and time again / We set off in hot pursuit, following our hearts / But there’s no-one at the inn tonight. Call the lift back / Love has flown out of reach again". On Mousse noire, he moves into a quasi-existential exploration of human nature, setting off on a quest to find the origins of our eternal "taste for unhappiness".

Is Tristan intended to be an album of serious philosophical import? Perhaps only Murat himself could say. One thing’s for sure, though, and that is that the album’s subtly crafted, subtly haunting lyrics give listeners ample food for thought. What’s more, the music on Tristan appears to encourage reflection, too. Simple, understated arrangements revolve around quiet drums simulating a beating heart, softly-chiselled bass and guitar and swelling backing vocals with the merest hint of brass. Sound effects taken from everyday life (heels tapping across a wooden floor, the sound of children playing and rain pattering on the roof) add an atmospheric touch here and there.

Murat’s latest album, recorded and produced in the autumn of 2007 at his home in the Auvergne countryside, is a musical ‘tour de force’, infused with the inevitable sadness and ‘tristesse’ of Tristan’s story, but poetically irresistible.


 Listen to an extract from Tel est pris

Jean-Louis Murat Tristan (V2 Music/Universal) 2008

Murat’s solo tour begins in the autumn of 2008 and includes a number of dates at L’Européen, in Paris (1- 5 October).

Fleur  de la Haye

Translation : Julie  Street