Filles Sourires 'Pour le Soleil Exactement' Mix

Inspired by Wouter's Lieve Franse Meisjes-mix (check!), here's the first Filles Sourires summer-mix, entitled Pour Le Soleil Exactement (for all songs have 'soleil' in the title. I chose tracks from the past and the present, and all female (apart from the first track). Note: it's one big file, 47 minutes long. Play it on the beach, in your roofgarden, in your cabriolet, whilst enjoying a fine bottle of vinho verde, etc.
(Mix is down again, will not repost)

Tracklist:
Air - Le Soleil Est Près De Moi
Austine - Au Soleil
Brigitte Bardot - Le Soleil
Christine Delaroche - Fille Du Soleil
April March - Que Le Soleil Soit Maudit
Iva - Nue Sous Le Soleil
Antena - Toujours du Soleil
China - Soleil
Dalida - Soleil
Niagara - Soleil d'Hiver
Ilya - Soleil, Soleil
Air - Le Soleil Est Près De Moi (Buffalo Daugther rmx)

Filles Sourires' Pour Le Soleil Exactement Mix

Sous le Soleil Exactement

Here in AMS the sun is directly overhead; sweat's dripping into my keyboard. All reason to post a few (not all) versions of Anna Karina's famous Sous Le Soleil Exactement, from the movie Anna. First up, it not that original version, but a version she re-recorded with Katerine, taken from the tribute-album Lucien Forever (you guessed it, the song's written by Serge). Read more on Anna here.
Another Serge tribute-album was overseen by John Zorn, in his Great Jewish Music-series (well, it only consists of two albums), on which the song was covered by avant-garde violinist Eyvind Kang and singer Michelle Amar. Finally there's the version by Dutch diva Liesbeth List, who is a very big advocate of French music. She received high French honours for it, was friends with Jacques Brel (whom she covered in Dutch) and she also did a musical on Edith Piaf.

Anna Karina & Katerine - Sous le Soleil Exactement
Evyind Kang & Michelle Amar - Sous le Soleil Exactement
Liesbeth List - Sous le Soleil Exactement
Serge Gainsbourg - Sous le Soleil Exactement

(ps: dunno who's on the picture, just thought it was a nice illustration.)

Caroline

Their first album can drop any minute (see their official site), but for now you listen and download (at a very low bitrate) four tracks of Lady Palavas. This Montpellier quintet is one of the biggest discoveries I did surfing MySpace. The sexy voice of Caroline Febvre, their mix of disco, bossa and sixites-pop (they call it easy-pop themselves and refer to Brigitte Bardot, the Tricatel-label, Gainsbourg and The Style Council), the sunny atmosphere: there are no downsides! For the album Agent Secret they got help from Jean-Louis Polumbo of Rinôçerôse - you might know them from the song Cubicle, that is used in an iPod-commercial, or dancefloor-hits like Mes Vacances à Rio or Le Rock Summer. A compilation album with their 'guitaristic house' was released last month.

Lady Palavas - Cuisine Actuelle

Mallory

I'm still scanning MySpace for unknown (well, to me anyway) filles sourires who deserve attention on this blog. Take Mallory Hays for instance, 23 years old, from Paris but living in Lyon right now. She already made two albums, and on her official site you can watch three clips. She says her heroes are Johnny Cash, Françoise Hardy, Keren Ann, Nick Drake, Billie Holliday and Gainsbourg. Her slighty naieve songs and her young, uncertain voice remind me a lot of Carla Bruni. I'm not saying she's as good, but with the right polishing of her raw talent, who knows.

Mallory Hays - Il Pleut Toujours.

Je suis revenu te dire

Thanks to FS-contribuants Speenhoff and Pascal I present you the missing versions of Je suis venu(e) te dire que je m'en vais, a search that started here.

I don't know anything about Harry O, only that his version is on the almost untraceable Lucien Forever tribute-cd. He made an almost comical version of the song, his voice thick with mock emotion.
Inna reggae stylee is Coumba Gawlo's version. This singer from Senegal made a name for herself outside Africa thanks to a coverversion of Miriam Makeba's Pata Pata (number one in France in 1998). She comes from a highly musical family of griots (West-African troubadours, so to speak), won several music prizes and recorded her album with the help of reggae-vets Sly and Robbie, and guitar-legend Michel-Yves Kochmann.
The Maurice Garrel-version is taken from the double-cd Portraits, that came out in 2000 and surely is the most unnecessary Gainsbourg-tribute ever released. Bambou, Serge's last female companion, oversaw the project and takes part: she reads Gainsbourg's lyrics. Just as actor Maurice Garrel does, and family friend Huguette Maillard, Guy Godefroy ad Sabeline Campo. That's right: no music, just 73 lyrics. The idea was to preserve the humour and the beautiful poetic language of the songs - at least, that's what I understand from the booklet. Although I love Serge's lyrics, I don't think his songs were poems, or should be read out like poems.


Harry O - Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais
Coumba Gawlo - Je suis venue te dire que je m'en vais
Maurice Garrel - Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais

Voilà L'Été (9): Les Enfants Edited

FS-fan Sir Edward has a great guest-posting on his fave summer song:

It happens every now and then that you hear the greatest intro, the faintest sigh, the most irresistible melody, only to be overtaken by a bunch of musicians who – to put it friendly- had something else in mind with their ungoing song than you had in mind. It was my case with Barclay’s folkrock-band Les Enfants Terrible’s – also what is said to be the best novel by the hand of French author & cinéaste Jean Cocteau - on their 1978 Sur un fil blanc. In my fantasy this anonymous girl singing could be a very apt fille sourire, if only the song would have been taken to another level musiacalwise.

So I decided to re-edit the bunch, which slightly got out of hand. Basically it meant more girl and less boy. In detail approx. 1,5 min. (mainly intro, break and outro) of the original song were used, re-used and cut up, together with an intro of another of their songs, the last having to suffer severe time- stretching techniques to be extended to a Umiliani horror-burlesquette. The original thingie was a 3 min. sympho progfolk outfit, my version (not to much cleaned-up, to keep first-time excitation) turned out to be a 4 min. St. Tropez-Rimini love-drama.

It’s the soundtrack to my never existed french summer-song story. Peut-être?
Imagine my absolute astonishment when I find this picture on the web , while looking for an -imaginary- sleeve for my -not so imaginary anymore- remix. As if a higher force was involved.

Les Enfants Terribles - Sur Un Fil Blanc (Sir Edward re-edit)

Iris

Wish I had logged on to MySpace.com earlier: it's a real treasure trove for fans of FS-music. Take Peppermynt Peppermoon, like Dessous Chics (see below) a trio, who play acoustic, folky pop. They count Françoise Hardy, Magic Numbers, Belle & Sebastian and actress Milla Jovovich (who, unbeknownst to me, made an album called The Divine Comedy) as their influences. The lovely voice of 18-year old singer Iris takes me back to summer evenings when I was a little Guuzbourg, playing safely in the garden of my parents. It's real comforting.
Peppermynt has their first show on July 3rd, also the birthday of Iris, @ Café de la Danse in Paris (as support act to Yvon Chateigner). If you're there, kiss Iris on the cheeks three times for me, like we do en Pays-Bas.

NB: the band changed their name when they found out another band was called Peppermint, plus their myspace-site was hacked.

Peppermoon - Les Petits Miroirs

(also check out songwriter/keyboardist Pierre Fageolle's site)