Christiane Legrand

Regular guestposter Sky (he gets a shoutout in the Filles Fragiles-booklet) on Christiane Legrand:

The high art of wordless female vocals is a seldom praised genre, despite works like Floyd’s 'Great Gig in the Sky' featuring the divine Clare Torry, Rita’s moaning classic Erotica or Teo Usuelli’s Piacere Sequence. The absolute, unmatched peak of the genre might well be Enterrement sous-marine (Underwater Funeral), a collaboration between French movie composer François de Roubaix and Christiane Legrand, one of the original members of the legendary Swingle Singers and voix chantée in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, for the soundtrack of Les Aventuriers in 1966. Legrand’s beautiful soprano adds a unforgettably haunting dimension to the famous scene when Lino Ventura and Alain Delon float deep down in the sea with the body of their dead lover, Joanna Shimkus, before letting her go and allowing her to be swallowed by the dark waters – a melancholy underwater ballet oscillating between heavy grief and zero gravity, one of the finest romantic scenes in French movie history, and a sacred song.

François de Roubaix feat. Christiane Legrand - Enterrement Sous-Marine

Filles Fragiles competition: winner 2

Ariane from Minden, Germany, send in a great post for the Filles Fragiles competition on Souad Massi, the 'Tracy Chapman du Maghreb'.

I thought we might open our intercultural arms and welcome an Algerian singer like Souad Massi, the gentle ethno-folk-rocker-rebel-chick, into the sisterhood of filles fragiles. I remember reading about her on Filles Sourires, singing an ode to Paris together with Marc Lavoine. In Noir et blanc, the French-language duet from her first studio album Raoui (2001), the Paris-based émigrée teams up with Senegalese icon Ismaël Lô. And, wow, what a song this is! The universal sense of joy and infectious happiness it radiates, the accessible upbeat rhythms and Arabica-perfumed guitar accompaniments, the perfect harmonising between two voices and, oh, what lyrics! As in most of her songs, Souad’s honest lyrics promote large humanitarian themes. In 'Black and white', we hear:
‘La musique a parfois des accords majeurs qui font rire les enfants mais pas les dictateurs. De n’importe quel pays, de n’importe quelle couleur, la musique est un cri qui vient de l’intérieur.’
Music is a cry that comes from inside: obvious, yes, but Souad’s peaceful serenade shows just how much that ‘cri’ or cry, the opposite of a sigh, can be both powerful and fragile but always conciliatory. This soft-spoken yet courageous bard takes on complex political issues, speaking out to us in a quiet and frank way, using her music to comment positively on thorny social issues. Chapeau, Souad! I am walking barefoot through the lush oases of this world and suddenly, just for a moment, there is peace and justice everywhere…

Souad Massi & Ismael Lô - Noir et Blanc

Filles Fragiles competition: winner 1

Visiteur Roger Grund send in his entry to the Filles Fragiles-giveaway:

Although hardly a fille in our memory, Édith Piaf was the quintessential Grand Mère Fragile. Thinking about Piaf, I recall some footage I once saw: A very fragile and already terminally ill Piaf aged 46 marries a 20 years younger hairdresser and when questioned by a reporter, she replied: ‘I have never been happier in my entire life’. This to me sums up the essence of Piaf. She died aged 47 in October 1963. The nation mourned, and so did the grandmother of the writer of these words.
Exodus is one of the less well known songs from her extensive catalogue, and as usual with all good Artists, it deals with life and death. In my dreams I meet Édith Piaf in the catacombes of Paris, and while we have a glass of calvados together she tells me: ‘Live your life without fear, as if you could die any time, and face death with a smile on your face’. Salut Édith

Edith Piaf - Exodus

Keren Ann live

André saw Keren Ann live, November 27 in Bruxelles. Here's his report:

There’s a fine line between the artist on stage and the audience. The unwritten rules. The line is often crossed. Sadly enough, most of the time this happens for the wrong reasons. The rules are disrespected. By members of the audience talking through delicate songs. By the artist being too eager to please. Last night none of this happened. From the moment Keren Ann Zeidel took the stage of the Orangerie at Brussels’ Botanique the invisible line was drawn. The audience listened with respect and admiration, applauding enthusiastically in between songs. Providing handclaps where needed and laughing appropriately during Keren Ann’s amusing little stories. Apart from what appeared to be a radio station disturbing on one of the amps the sound was perfect too. Dressed in a sober black outfit and supported only by a guitarist and a drummer, Keren Ann stripped her songs bare to their essence and brought the focus where it should be: on her wonderful, lush voice. She only sang three of her French songs, but there’s no reason to complain with English songs like Not Going Anywhere, Chelsea Burns, Lay You Head Down and a great rendition of Big Yellow Taxi (which made me realise again how terribly bland that Counting Crows version is). None of this caused the fine line to be erased though. At the end of the encores it was still there. That’s when it happened: The audience just didn’t seem to want to stop applauding when Keren Ann reappeared on stage, to the point where it must have almost made her feel embarrassed. The line was already blurred. The enigmatic singer erased it completely by singing an Italian song a cappella (at least it sounded Italian to me). Magical.


Two live-tracks (not from the Bruxelles concert)
Keren Ann & Doriand - Le Dernier Pas (live)
Keren Ann - Hallelujah (live Leonard Cohen-cover) (thanks SOM)

Giveaway

Want to get a free copy of Filles Fragiles? I am giving away five cd's. But you need to do something. You need to write a guestpost on your favourite song by a French fragile girl. A song that makes you sigh. A song that makes tears well in your eyes. A song that makes you want kick off your shoes and walk barefoot in a fresh green meadow. That guestpost has to be at least 150 words long. It doesn't matter if that chanson was posted here before. Deadline is December 10. Send your entries (with your adress) to guuzbourg(a)gmail.com. The most inspiring and/or touching guestposts get a free FF-cd.

Emmanuelle Béart

Must be the way she pouts constantly. Those lips, that mouth and those enormous eyes. They keep you glued to the screen, be it in the movies or at home in front of the tv. Emmanuelle Béart is an actress with magnetic qualities. A lot of fansites (here, here or here) agree. She played in films like Manon des Sources, Mission:Impossible, Héros de la Famille and 8 Femmes. In the last two she sang as well - being the daugther of chansonnier Guy Béart, she met Leo Ferré and George Brassens at a young ages, "nice uncles to go and pick cherries with", she once said in an interview. She appears in very sexy lingerie-commercials, but is an activist for human rights as wel, she recently wrote an article for Le Monde about illegal immigrants and their terrible housing conditions (here) in Paris.
With three movies in post-production, we're still hearing from Béart, one way or another. And this ofcourse is a dream of all of us.

Emmanuelle Béart - Histoire d'un Amour (clip)
Emmanuelle Béart - I'll Close My Eyes
Emmanuelle Béart - Pile ou Face (clip)
Emmanuelle Béart & Marc Lavoine - Fais Moi Un Place
Elsa, Emmanuelle Béart, Laurent Voulzy, Pascal Obispo - Message Personnel
Patrick Bruel & Sandrine Kiberlain & Emmanuelle Beart - Ou sont tous mes amants
Guy Béart - La Chanson de Prévert
Would-be-goods - Emmanuelle Béart

(anyone knows the song that is played during this steaming scene from the movie Nathalie?)

Souvenir

Patricia & Jaime of Souvenir (also on Filles Fragiles) had their Allô Allô single remixed by Johan Agebjörn (of Sally Shapiro-fame). It's part of an EP called Extras 64, featuring new songs, remixes and covers (Hanging on the Telephone by Blondie in French!). Plus they made a fantastic video, it makes our Spanish duo look like the Jack & Meg White of fragile French girliepop.

Souvenir - Allô, Allô (Johan Agebjorn remix)