Helena Noguerra

Serge Rezvani is a big name in French songwriting, it was he who wrote the beautiful Le Tourbillon, sung by Jeanne Moreau in the movie Jules et Jim. But he wrote a lot more songs. For her new album Fraise Vanille, the gorgeous Helena Noguerra recorded 18 of Rezvani's songs, with help from Vincent Delerm, Marie France, Katerine (ofcourse) and the master himself. Rezvani is, like Helena, a multi-talent: he paints, writes and composes, Helena acts, sings and writes. Not having to make choices, doing what you want to do, that was what tied them together, Helena says in this interview. See a videointerview here. [Merci Franss!]

Helena Noguerra & Vincent Delerm - Les Mots de Rien
Helena Noguerra & Marie France - Jamais je ne t'ai dit
Helena Noguerra & Serge Revzani - Nous Vivions Deux

Jeanne Moreau - Les Mots de Rien
Anna Karina - Jamais je ne t'ai dit

Lovesongs and Marc Collin

Yesterday I finally got the time to watch my Paris Je t'aime-dvd. It made me desperately wanna go to the City of Light, it made me cry (the Juliette Binoche-part) and it made me laugh (Steve Buscemi never fails). It made me realise that it's been a loooong time since I've been to the movies - one of the downsides of being a dad, I guess.
It's also an explanation why I haven't seen Les Chansons d'Amour, a film by Christophe Honoré that was brought to my attention by Jorge (thanks again). He directed me to this MySpace-page, featuring short extraits. This user-comment on IMDB tells us the film's about a threesome, told in a very musical way. Films featuring Ludivine Sagnier usually are fine (she's also in Paris Je t'Aime), and she sings on the soundtrack. So does Chiara Mastroianni, also a big plus ofcourse. The music's composed by Alex Beaupain,

The quality of songs on the soundtrack differs, same goes for Marc Collin's Two For The Road project. Collin is ofcourse the mastermind behind Nouvelle Vague, Ollano and many other projects (older post here), TFTR is an soundtrack for an imaginary film about two highschool sweethearts who meet up after 10 years. They go on a trip, with dramatic outcome. The songs are sung by Feist-soundalike Katrine Ottosen (pictured) and Valente, who Marc met via MySpace. Best song is the theme, which reminds me a little of Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle for One from the Heart. Read more here, where Marc tells us that a second Ollano album featuring Camille was in the works, but never finished. Could you please get it back on track, Marc? Or have Melanie Pain finish her album? It's nice you lend your hand to English singing broads like Birdpaula, Olga Kouklaki and Phoebe Killdeer, but we wanna hear some French stuff from you too!

Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni, Brigitte Rouan, Jean-Marie Winling, Alice Butaud - La Bastille
Ludivine, Louis Garrel, Clothilde Hesme - Je n'aime que toi
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Valente & Katrine Ottosen - Two for the Road
Valente & Katrine Ottosen - Counting on You

Lina

GUESTPOST! Sky N. on Lina from Paris:

In the history book of supreme wet pop dreams, Lina has a glossy chapter for herself. Unfortunately, she’s done only two records in ten years. Her first album Dans 5 minutes, j’suis prête (1993) shows her with a dynamite stick on the cover and is a quite lovely affair: a reinvention of YéYé Pop for the fin de siècle including the hip Best Seller and a sweeeet version of Sugar Town by Lee Hazzlewood, as he’s called in the acknowledgements. No complaints, s’il vous plaît – a laid-back ironizzt like Lee would certainly have approved of the spelling.
However, the really explosive stuff can be found on Redevenir Modeste (2003), one of the premier (and outrageously neglected) French records of our decade. Just start with Girouette which you will find on Lina’s MySpace site, with her vocals oscillating between retro electropop and Erotheque, Miss Pinball Machine and pure genius, and the sharpest fuzz guitar licks you’re going to hear in a long, long while – delivered by an enviable guy operating under the name of Monsieur Calvez, obviously inspired by The Chocolate Watch Band and other psych heroes of the sixties. Plus: Delice Idéal, the sexiest m*th*rf*ck*r of a song you’ll be able to imagine, and 27,000,000 Typen (können nicht irren), a simply irresistible piece of sound beaming German lyrics right to another planet. Big words? No, folks: Grand Délire.

Lina - 27,000,000 Typen (Konnen Nicht Irren)
Lina - 27 000 000 de mecs (ne peuvent se tromper)
Lina - Superchéri

Alizée (and more)

These are busy, and expensive times dear Filles-fans. A lot of new albums by our favourites are coming up - Alizée being one of them. Yes, the girl who saw her Moi...Lolita was recently covered by Julien Doré, is back! In October Psychédélices is released, first single Mademoiselle Juliette is out now. Also, album track Fifty/Sixty (she namechecks Lou Reed in this) is leaked, there are even unofficial YouTube-clips. Very fierce tracks, she changed record companies, and toughened herself up as well. This fanpage has all the details.

Already released: Alors Quoi by Marie Cherrier. Folky, jazzy, vaudeville-y, that lovely girlie voice, what's not to like?

Via Dusty Groove, I found out that Universal re-released L'Amour a la Papa from 1967, a compilation featuring (older) songs by Serge, Juliette Greco and Alain Goraguer. With a really sexy sleeve!

I already posted one of the bonustracks on Biolay's Trash YeYe album (here), and now the other one. Les Séparés is also a brilliant cover, based on a poem by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore and made famous by Julien Clerc. He sung it together with Isabelle Boulay on her Du Temps Pour Toi album (2005)

Alizée - Mademoiselle Juliette
Alizée - Fifty/Sixty (radio-rip)
Marie Cherrier - Les Pattes du Loup
Marie Cherrier - Café Noir
Juliette Greco - L'Amour a la Papa
Benjamin Biolay - Les Séparés
Isabelle Boulay & Julien Clerc - Les Séparés

Melissa Mars

Two years after La Reine des Abeilles, Melissa Mars returns with A La Recherche de L'Amour Perdu. English and French songs, with electronica-touches (like Metal Boy, Androgyne and single Love Machine) but also some goth-lite (Mephisto). She even plays a country-ditty (Little Blue). Pascal Obispo joins for a duet - they joined forces before for 1980. All 'n all A La Recherche is a more upbeat album then you'd expect from the title, Melissa shines in the electropopsongs, her girlie-voice suits that style best. But I'm glad she didn't lose her black streaks.

Melissa Mars - L'être-Ange Mephisto
Melissa Mars - Metal Boy

Laïs & Trenet

The three Belgian babes of Laïs (Annelies, Nathalie, Jorunn) are making records since 1998. They write their own material, but also cover old European folksongs, in several languages, that sometimes date back many centuries. But they also cover Jacques Brel and, on their newest album The Ladies Second Song, Charles Trenet. Serenade Portugais wasn't originally sung by Mr. Boum himself, but by French songstress Leo Marjane, who's apparently a big star pre- and during World War 2. As always, the Lais-girls used the original lyrics, but wrote their own (beautiful) melodies. By the way, on one of the pictures in the booklet by their new album, you can see Jorunn (the blonde) breastfeeding a skull. No, really.

Laïs - Serenade Portugaise
Charles Trenet & Leo Marjane - Serenade Portugaise

Breut, Loizeau et les autres

There are two bonustracks on Benjamin Biolay's brilliant new album Trash YéYé, one of them is a cover of Françoiz Breut's classic Si Tu Disais. Does this mean maybe that Ben is producing, and/or writing for Françoiz next album? One can only hope.

Benjamin Biolay - Si Tu Disais
Françoiz Breut - Si Tu Disais
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Triphop's not dead, it's resting it's cool-capped head in the loving arms of Isa Somparé. She just made a great video to accompany the soulful Tu m'dis que tu m'aimes, with scenes from Paris that makes me wanna go there immediatly. Isa's greatest fear is that a wolf comes out of her closet and eats both her ears. See Isa's Myspace for more fun facts.

Isa Somparé - Tu M'Dis Que Tu M'Aimes
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Emily Loizeau's L'Autre Bout du Monde has been re-released with an extra EP, featuring covers and clips. One of those covers is La Complainte des Filles de Joie, by Brassens.

Emily Loizeau - La Complainte des Filles de Joie
George Brassens - La Complainte des Filles de Joie
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Coupe Bien Net Et Bien Carre is the title of the new album by freckled fille Sandrine Kiberlain. First single La Chanteuse is a folky strummer, with a disco-ish beat. Songs on her album were written by, among others, Camile Bazbaz and Etienne Daho.

Sandrine Kiberlain - La Chanteuse

Yelle

I just found out that A Cause des Garçons by Yelle is a cover - the original (written by Alain Chamfort) was a hit by A Caus' Des Garçons in 1987. See the video above. Couldn't find an mp3 of the original version Thanks to everyone who send me the original version! Palms Out Sounds posted a great eighties-infected remix (by Nelson Pelletier) of ACDG by Yelle, which I repost here. POS has another remix of a Yelle song too.

Yelle - A Cause des Garçons( NixonPelletier remix)
A Caus' des Garçons - A Caus' des Garçons

Thanks to Mr Blog, here's a 12-inch mix of another A Caus' Des Garçons-hit. With added Prince!
A Caus' Des Garçons - Faire les Voyous

Stacey Kent

"Signing with Blue Note, I feel like Steffi Graf must have felt the first time she stepped onto court to play Martina Navratilova." Great soundbite, taken from this biography on Bluenote.com. It also says that for her Blue Note-debut, Stacey Kent recorded "two of her favourite French songs by celebrated songwriter Serge Gainsbourg", which suggests she handpicked 'm herself. Not true. Ces Petits Riens and La Saisons des Pluies were send to her by French A&R-guy Nicolas Pflug, but she loved 'm (see this epk) right away. In the linked interview, Stacey tells that she and the band are total francophiles - not only did she record two Gainsbourg-chansons, she also covered Samba Saravah (by Pierre Barouh, from Un Homme et Une Femme). Earlier, Biolay's Jardin d'Hiver was covered by Stacey, who has a very sweet, but strong voice. Not as smokey-barroom like Diana Krall, and without the southern belle-drawl of Norah Jones, but somewhere in between.
For good measure, I've put up the original Serge-versions, plus more covers.

Stacey Kent - Ces Petits Riens
Stacey Kent - La Saison des Pluies
Serge Gainsbourg - Ces Petits Riens
Serge Gainsbourg - La Saison des Pluies
Christiane Canavese - La Saison des Pluies
Christiane Canavese - Ces Petits Riens
Jane Birkin - Ces Petits Riens
Catherine Denevue - Ces Petits Riens
Angelique Kidjo - Ces Petits Riens
EXTRA: Zizi Jeanmaire - Ces Petits Riens
EXTRAEXTRA: thanks to Jimbomaniac and Benzen, here's two extra versions
Françoise Hardy - Ces Petits Riens
Carla Bruni - Those Little Things

Fredda

It took me all morning to figure out from what song Pascal Parisot and his better half Frederique Dastrevigne took the string-part for J'aime J'aime. Ofcourse, the clue was in the title: They, by Jem. And she stole it from Swingle Singers' adaptation of Bach's Prelude in F Minor. Phew.
Toutes mes aventures, released in May, is a very good album by Fredda (Parisot produced and wrote nearly everything, together they form Radiomatic). I like Fredda's bit posh voice, the songs are well-crafted with nods to country and latin-american styles like rumba and cha-cha-cha. One of the best albums I heard this year - and 2007 is such a great year so far, with superalbums by Vanessa, Babet, Axelle and Benjamin, and albums by Pauline Croze (listen to the new single!), Melissa Mars, Amélie-Les-Crayons and (hopefully) Francoiz Breut coming up.

Fredda - J'aime J'aime
Jem - They
Swingle Singers - Prelude in F Minor
Radiomatic - Douliou Douliou St. Tropez
Pascal Parisot - Ça Alors

Chiara, Amel

Earlier, I posted two tracks from the new Benjamin Biolay-cd. As you know, he divorced his lovely wife Chiara Mastroianni (pictured with her mother Catherine Deneuve). Ben and Chiara made one of the most beautiful duet-albums ever released, Home. It's a pity they will never sing together, but Chiara is not lost for music. For the soundtrack to the movie Persepolis, based on the contemporary comics of Marjane Satrapi, she sang Eye of the Tiger. Yes, that's the song Survivor made for Sly Stallone's Rocky-movie. This is ofcourse a more hushed version. Chiara's not the only French girl to sing this song, Amel Bent released a R&B-version earlier.

Chiara Mastroianni & Oliver Bernet - Eye of the Tiger
Chiara Mastroianni & Benjamin Biolay - La ballade de mois de juin
Amel Bent - Eye of the Tiger

La Meduza, A Loulia

Krizia, aka La Meduza, tells it like it is: "Born in 1987 in Bloomington Indiana with Italian, French and Spanish genes. Most of my life I spent growing up in Geneva. Studied music from a very early age, began by playing the piano at the conservatoire de Musique and took part in several Musical Theatre amateur shows. Music was a definite path in my life and this is why it led me to Liverpool where I'm currently studying for a Bachelor in Performing Arts (Music) at LIPA. I began composing in 2005 and just discovered how to create electronic music in December 2006. Therefore my work is still very much under construction."

Under construction, you say? Dear Krizia, Ainsi Va La Vie is such a sweet soft song, with a little shadow, but that's what sunny songs need sometimes. It's perfect, no need to reconstruct!

LaMeduza - Ainsi Va La Vie



I've posted a few songs about rain on this blog, but none a beautiful and desperate as La Pluie Qui Tombe. Written by Daniel Darc, covered by A Loulia, a duo (Melanie and Sebastien) who according to their MySpace are based in Paris, Toulouse and the Mid-Pyrenees. They're unsigned, amazingly, but they made one album themselves (see here). La Pluie Qui Tombe is a great song to watch leaves fall from trees by. Sebastien writes: "We covered this song just because it's my all time favorite. I feel very emotional when I listen to it. I proposed this track to Mélanie (lead singer) and we recorded it. The fragile side of Mélanie was perfect for this music. We recorded last week. It was a great moment for us."
It's a great moment for all of us, I'd say.

A Loulia - La Pluie Qui Tombe

Public Service Announcement

René makes us all turn green with envy:

Maybe a little bit late, and I even don't know whether there are still tickets available, but every fan of the Filles Sourires should be in Meaux (40 kilometres east-northeast of Paris and 20 km from Disneyland Paris) on the 21th till the 23th september. There are more than 25 concerts with almost 130 artists with names as Mademoiselle K., Olivia Ruiz (with guests), Superbus, Adrianne Pauly, Rose, Zazie, Jeanne Cherhal (with guests) and Elisa Tovati. By the way, this beautiful lady will sing in Shopping Mall Val d'Europe (near Disneyland Paris) at the 15th septembre at 16h30 (near the FNAC). See here for more information.

Sylvia Kristel

At the beginning of this year, The Netherlands had an overload of Sylvia Kristel. She had her autobiography published in Dutch, and that caused hundreds (or so it seemed) interviews, documentaries, tv-shows and whatnot. Understandable, she led a life that the media loves to publish or talk about. I got a little tired of all that attention, but my soft spot for Sylvia never went away.
Stephen Emmer, a Dutch musician who became a little famous for making various intro-tunes for tv-shows (but he did way more), just made an album with various celebs reading poetry. Allen Ginsberg, Michael Parkinson, Richard Burton, Sacha de Boer and Syvlia. She read a text by Baudelaire, which Emmer set to music. To have Kristel talk seductively about beauty in French in your ear, what joy.

Stephen Emmer & Sylvia Kristel - La Beauté

Yelle

Great records by great French artists are released at the same time, it seems: last week Pop Up by my fave French electropopgirl Yelle saw the light of day. It features the singles (and dancefloor sureshots) A Cause De Garcons and Je Veux te Voir, and a couple of new tracks that are slower, less danceable, more synthipop. Bestest example is Les Femmes, that has been posted on several websites already. The album has two versions, I really like that Siruismo remix. Yes this is bubblegum, but it keeps its taste for a long time.

Yelle - Les Femmes
Yelle - Les Femmes (Siruism rmx)
Yelle - Tristesse/Joie

Biolay

Tomorrow, Monday Sept. 10, Benjamin Biolay's Trash YeYe is released (if you are a regular visitor, you know this blog thinks and speaks very highly about mr makes me sigh even as I type this). It's the fourth album of the 'Nicolas Anelka of French Pop Music': "Comme le footballeur, il a connu des débuts tonitruants, est bourré de talent mais un tas de malentendus brouillent son image et lui valent de violentes critiques." His last album A L'Origine was a flop (50,000 sold, I know a lot of bands who'd give their right arm for figures like that), Ben became a little depressed, as he says here. Trash YeYe is an album about the dark and cruel sides of love. Could be because he divorced Chiara Mastroianni in 2005.
Still, happy people have no stories, so artistically his mood is a blessing. The new album has lush arrangements, flawless production and more than a couple of really great songs. Ben's appearing in no less than 3 movies in the upcoming months.

Benjamin Biolay - La Garçonnière
Benjamin Biolay - Laisse Aboyer Les Chiens

(Merci Franss)
(See video for single Dans La Merco Benz here)
(read a French interview with BB here)

More Vanessa

There are several versions of Vanessa Paradis' new album Divinidylle. There's a regular cd-version, a vinyl version, a special cd-edition featuring a booklet with pictures taken during the studio sessions (this I have), there's a Japanese version featuring two extra songs, Emmenez-Moi and I Wouldn't Dare. Haven't heard that last one (if you have it, please mail it to me!), the other is available via iTunes and other downloadservices. Emmenez-moi rang a very tiny familiair bell - I just realised it's a cover of a Charles Aznavour-song. A very beautiful one, and it has been covered before by various artists. Like metalband Arsenic, accordion-rocker Anthony Chaplain and chanteuse Simone Langlois.

Charles Aznavour - Emmenez-Moi
Vanessa Paradis - Emmenez-Moi
Arsenic - Emmenez-Moi
Chaplain - Emmenez-Moi
Simone Langlois - Emmenez-Moi

More Vanessa celebrations here.

And bienvenue to readers from M-La-Music!

English interview with Nessa here

Charlotte

Scary news: Charlotte Gainsbourg had a cerebral haemorrhage on Wednesday. This article in Le Figaro says that she's out of danger and that an operation went very well. We wish her a quick recovery, and all the best for her family. (BBC-link here)




Charlotte Gainsbourg - The Operation

More quickies

Maryse Letarte (pictured) and Emilie Proulx are both Quebecoises, and who fish in the same musical (i.e. folky) waters. Maryse's most recent album Le Motif was released in 2004, and has lush strings and great Chopinlike pianos. Her voice isn't all that, bit bland, but Le Héros is a very nice song.

Emilie Proulx likes it s-l-o-w. Her EP Dans une ville endormie was released in the beginning of this year. She likes Pink Floyd and Radiohead, her songs remind me of Cat Power, although less sultry.

The lovely Amelie DeLange (who thinks I am American) asked attention for her close friend and musical companion Yann de Paris. Listening to his songs, he has a Gainsbourg-obsession as big as mine. His ode to Paris (featuring Amelie on backing vocals, I take it) has Serge and Jane written all over it. Which is nice.

Maryse Letarte - Le Héros
Emilie Proulx - La peur me montre vers où aller
Yann de Paris - Bienvenue a Paris

Isabelle Adjani

Pplipp has returned, so if you want a shot of glamfabulous French and Italian pop from the past, go here. Frédéric was so kind to send me a link to a Isabelle Adjani-video I did not know existed. Only in the eighties they made these videos. Isa looks hot, though (but for the love of God, quit dancing! Elaine from Seinfeld is a ballerina compared to this!)



Isabelle Adjani - Le bonheur c'est malheureux

Filles Sourires Birthday Mix

This month, Filles Sourires is celebrating it's second anniversary. Again, it's been an amazing year, with lots of great music, fantastic contributions and new friends. Last year I made a mix of special Gainsbourg-tracks. Now, because the date nearly (well, by a week) coincides with the release of a new Vanessa Paradis-album Divinidylle, I took hits, bootlegs, b-sides, rarities and one song so new it will be officially released néxt year, by Vanessa Paradis. Plus a few covers. Again, it's one big file, nearly 55 minutes long. Enjoy, champagne's on me and here's to another great year. Thanks to SOM and Mystery Man for their contributions to this mix.

Tracklist Filles Sourires Birtday Mix 2:
Concia Chachacha (+ Les Rabbits, from the Atomik-soundtrack)
Be My Baby (from Vanessa Paradis, album produced by Lenny Kravitz)
Que Fait La Vie? (from album Bliss)
La Magie des Surprises (her first ever single)
Varvara Pavlona (b-side of Joe Le Taxi)
Joe Le Taxi (cover by Stereo Total)
Walk on the Wild Side (from album Variations sur le même t'aime)
Dis-Lui Toi Qui Je t'Aime (cover by Elodie Frégé)(live)
Don't Smoke in Bed (+ Iggy Pop)(live)
Le Tourbillon de la Vie (Jeanne Moreau-tribute)
La Ballade de Johnny-Jane (+ Jane Birkin)(live)
La Scène (+ M) (from Un Monstre à Paris-soundtrack, release in 2008)
Joe le Taxi (cover by Jon Smith)
Emmenez-Moi (bonustrack to Divine Idylle)
Made in Asia (from Le Soldat Rose-soundtrack)
Flagrant Delire (from Variations sur le même t'aime, and my alltime fave VP song)

Bienvenue to visitors from The Guardian!