Delerm en duo

A French guy once said about Vincent Delerm that he "tries to embody the stereotype of the feminine, thoughtful, mysterious poet. Not working." There's some truth in that, Delerm has a remarkable singing style, and his nerdy presence and namedropping lyrics isn't for everyone. Cool by me. Most recent VD-release is Favourite Songs, an album with (mostly) covers. Now, as you know, I'm all in favour of the coversong, but whole albums aren't usually a sign of artistic progress. Still, Delerm chose to invite a whole bunch of talented friends to Paris theatre La Cigale - among them Benjamin Biolay, Georges Moustaki, Irène Jacob, Neil Hannon (who makes a funny mess of the French lyrics) and Renaud. The audience clearly didn't know who was about to come on stage - they roar everytime the guestvocalist appears. This album is a mixed bag, as is usually the case with these kind of albums. Can't say every version is up to par, his duet with Biolay is terrible. But there are a few highlights. I've added the original versions.
A special version of this album, including dvd's, is out next week.

Vincent Delerm & Irène Jacob - Désir Désir
Laurent Voulzy & Veronique Jannot - Désir Désir

Vincent Delerm & Jeanne Cherhal & Albin de la Simone - Les Gens Qui Doutent
Anne Sylvestre - Les Gens Qui Doutent

Gaële

Tango: the vertical expression of a horizontal desire. When you hear the take of French-born Quebec-resident Gaële on the tango, you'll get the picture. Her sultry little song reminds me a little of In-grid's Tu es foutu - danceable, tango-flavoured pop. Ofcourse Gotan Project come into play as well. L'Idéal Tango is from Gaële's debutalbum Cockpit - the song Léo can be downloaded free from her site, and from this blog.

Gaële - L'Idéal Tango
Gaële - Leo

Sylvia Kristel

Great day yesterday: I gave a promo-copy of Filles Fragiles to Sylvia Kristel! The worldfamous Emmanuelle-actress (still a very sensual woman) was a guest in Dutch tv-show De Wereld Draait Door because of the release of an updated Emmanuelle-dvd. I was there thanks to a friend who works for the show.
This new dvd-edition of the 1974-movie sports a Making Of-documentary. Kristel's not in this doc, she told the viewers that she didn't have the time to cooperate, and that they didn't offer her enough money. Still, she had some great stories to share about the filming, and even more on the casting. Back then, she was a slightly naive mannequin, 20 years old. At the time, she didn't speak French (that is why her voice is dubbed in the movie), and the producers wanted an Asian girl as a lead. Sylvia made an impression when she appeared for director Jaeckin and the producers in very loosefit dress. Her shoulderstraps slid down with one move - she did her audition bare-breasted, and was almost hired at the spot.
One great moment from the Making-Of features Serge Gainsbourg. He was asked to compose the soundtrack, but declined: he said Sylvia didn't gave him a hard-on. (He later made the soundtrack to Goodbye, Emmanuelle)
What do you think? Click.

EDC featuring Sylvia Kristel - Changes
Pierre Bachelet - Emmanuelle theme
Pierre Bachelet - Emmanuelle (vocal version)
Francis Lai - Emmanuelle II
Serge Gainsbourg - Goodbye Emmanuelle

Salut les copains

Sound of Musique started blogging again, and he kicked off with some great stuff, for instance Vanessa Paradis duetting with Ben Harper. And Christine Spiked Candy is back on track too, and she spoils us by posting the bestest yeye-compilations! New in my linklist is GoGoClub. And check out Wheresourreadysteadygo too, for some Françoise Hardy and French new wave.

Edie

Babysue says about Edie: "Her music isn't immediately gripping...but rather slips into the subconscious before having its full effect". True. Had I heard about Edie (real name Edith Pijpers) before, I would've included her on my Filles Fragiles compilation. For she is the only Dutch-born singer I know who'd fit perfectly on such comp, or on a site like this. She's gorgeous, she sings in French (well, she sings in English too) and she sounds husky and fragile. And her music provokes strong images: "Marianne Faithful making out with Jane Birkin, with Nico watching", says one Robin Eaton on Edie's site. Have to listen more closely probably to get the same image, but still. Edie saw a lot of the world (she lived in Sydney, Paris, Los Angeles and Nashville), recorded three albums so far and a new one's in the making. Her music's very versatile, ranging from folk to electronica. As you can hear on these two examples.

Edie - Ca y est
Edie - Rien

Veronika Silva

Ne Me Quitte Pas as a tango - but ofcourse. Veronika Silva recorded Brel's immortal classic inna tango stylee for her 2006-album Gorda. What a beautiful version! You might know Veronika from the live-shows she did with Gotan Project - a band that tried to fuse dance-beats with tango, which led to a whole bunch of imitators. I liked their first album, but after that they showed (just as their imitators) that the concept had it's limitations. I saw Gotan Project live a couple of times, I remember a show on the North Sea Jazz festival very clearly, it was amazing. But most recent GP-album Lunatico bored me to death. GP never recorded in the studio with Veronika - shame. Now GP's Philippe Cohen-Solal is releasing a solo album as Solal, which explores his country-side. Seems like he got bored with tango-lounge too. [Merci André]

Veronika Silva - Ne Me Quitte Pas

Pauline Croze

Thanks to Franss, I've now heard all songs on Pauline Croze's new album. It's a cd that's 'délicat, difficile et risqué!' according to this review by Rock 'n France. You can understand the fragility, difficult and risky are the way she sings - it's not monotonous, but she doesn't change the melody so that it seems monotonous. It's hard to describe - listen to Baiser d'Adieu (written by Arthur H), and you'd understand. Same thing goes with the guitar-parts - it seems like she keeps playing the same lick over and over again. The album kicks off with an 3 minute instrumental that is almost minimal music (think Steve Reich): repetitive, hypnotising. She's not making it easy for people who loved her poppier debut - although there were songs on that album with the same repetitive structure.

We had our legs pulled, people. It's fake. This is a deliberate loop. That's why it's so monotonous!

Pauline Croze - Baiser d'Adieu
For the RIGHT version, go here!