FF Competition: Honourable Mentions

Yes, I know the deadline was on Dec 10, but all 5 winners have been picked. The response has been really exciting. From all over the world too. Isabelle from Bruxelles, Randy from Brooklyn and René from Paris wrote really nice entries, that just didn't make the top 5. Sorry copains, but as a consolation (and because y'all chose great songs), I will post your pieces right here.

Isabelle's:
Marie Gillain, my favourite French fragile girl –who's not French, but Belgian– has only released three songs so far. The two first songs appeared in movies she played in (Sans mensonges on the soundtrack of Mon père ce héros, in which she played Depardieu's daughter; and Laissons Lucie faire, duet with the director Emmanuel Mouret- on the soundtrack of the movie of the same name).
My favourite song is her duet with Martin Rappeneau called Les figures imposées. It was first recorded by Martin Rappeneau solo on his album La moitié des choses. The album was rereleased a few months later with the duet. Marie Gillain gives a whole new dimension to the song. She turned the song from a lamentation by an abandoned man into a dialogue between a man and a woman who realize that they have to put a stop to their relationship. Marie not only sings the song, the interprets the character (her experience as an actress might have helped). In her voice, you can hear she still loves the guy.
The two met through Martin Gamet, Marie Gillain's boyfriend at the time (their daughter Dune was born in 2004), who is one of Rappeneau's musicians (he also plays with Camille Dalmais and Louis Chédid).

Martin Rappeneau & Marie Gillain - Les Figures Imposées

René's:

Are you French when you are born in Italy, but live in the country from the age of 5? Are you a fille fragile when you make a clip like hers? These rhetoric questions make you really wonder why Carla Bruni is not included on Filles Fragiles. This former photo model makes songs who make you sigh, smile and gives you a soft mood. Le
plus belle du quartier has made some time ago a new cd with English poems but the first cd (with beautiful photos) stays in my list of my favourites. The best known track is ofcourse Quelqu'un m'a dit (Somebody told me) and is as beautiful as madam herself. Only accompanied by a guitar speaks it about hope and love. I hope
Guuzbourg will take this song or another as bonustrack at the second pressing of the CD or put it on volume deux. To be honest, I don't doubt it will come next year.

Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un m'a dit


Randy's:

La Brisa Day Roché is a treasure. Like a river polished stone gleaming from the banks, her tumbles through the world only make that easier to see. Growing up in an environment where art and music drifted though the air like lightning bugs at dusk on warm summer nights, Brisa learned to create sonic maps where X marks the spot, as well as painting them (see her myspace page for a brief glimpse of at some of her paintings). Like the glistening river stone or the yellow phosphorescence of the lightning bug, Brisa's need to shine outlived her Northern California existence and so she traveled the world from Trinidad to Russia and many stops in between.
Her music perfectly captures her nomadic style of rarely staying still and incorporating many worldly elements into her being. Singing mainly in English, residing mainly in Paris, adding pinches of jazz, blues, folk, roots level country, pop, among others to her musical stew, Brisa is very much a global citizen. Her musical style has no single defining characteristic other than her enchanting voice, which I associate with the way that Serafina Pekkala, the witch queen from Phillip Pullman's ever wonderful His Dark Materials Trilogy, might sound (read the books the are extraordinary).
Her first album, The Chase, while stellar, hardly compares to her personal vision, Takes, just released. Hearing her talk about it makes listening to it far more satisfying. The seeds she sowed along her journeys have blossomed into sweet ripe fruit one can sink his/her ears into.
Her song Egyptian, is my favorite track from the new album, and seems to personify the many themes in her music as well as life, movement, art, love, and wanderlust. She performs it acoustic for L'Internaute Magazine, and damn if that whistle is not just as wonderful sounding as her voice. I am totally transfixed by this song and it makes me want to roll up my life and jump in my own borrowed hot rod to seek out my own treasured jewels.
While her travels might have taken her across the planet, looking for the treasure the world has to offer, we are lucky enough to find them reproduced through her music. So bask under the flow off her an become equally enriched.

Brisa Roché - Egyptian
Brisa Roché - Dans le vert de ses yeux