woensdag 27 december 2006

Month of Male

Before I wish you all a wonderful and safe new year's eve, I'd like to announce that January will be all-male-month here at Filles Sourires. The classics, the new guys, and everyone in between. If possible, I will post a duet with a jolie fille as well, but testosterone will rule! Why? Well, there are so many great male singers in France (or singing in French) who need as much attention from the world as their female counterparts, I feel obliged to get them out there.
As always, your suggestions, guestposts and mp3s are welcomed.

As a taster of the coming month, here's a beautiful track from what I consider to be the best French male album from 2006, L'Horizon by Dominique A. (By the way, that's not Dominique on the picture, Dom looks like this)

Dominique A - Antaimoro

Watine


"A cinematographic blend of Radiohead, Satie, Kurt Weill and preludes of Bach embroidered by multiple voices and electronic sounds and whispers." Sounds interesting, eh? Watine is her name, she's from Saint Cloud and made two albums in English, singing with a "a bad charming French accent" as she described herself in the FS-comment-section here. Her album Dermaphrodite got rave reviews, she was compared to Kate Bush and Portishead and got help from producer Markus Davis (who also worked with Emilie Simon). Watine emailed me she's working on a French album (hurrah!), set for release au printemps. Will keep you posted about that.

Watine - Sing C'est La Vie
Random Moods feat. Watine - Sing C'est La Vie

Rita


Tropicalismo, also known as Tropicália, is a Brazilian art movement that arose in the late 1960s and encompassed theatre, poetry and music, among other forms. Caetano Veloso is one of the leaders of this movement, trio Os Mutantes one of the key bands. In his book Tropical Truth, Veloso described Tropicalia as antropofagia; cannibalism of all kinds of art forms. Which meant that musicians listened to, borrowed from and got inspired by everyone ranging from Brazilian legends like Joao Gilberto to the Mothers of Invention. And, ofcourse, Françoise Hardy, for this is the late sixties we're talking about. On Os Mutantes' debutalbum (also called Os Mutantes) Rita Lee and her boys did a pastoral version of Le Premier Bonheur du Jour - be sure to light some incense while listening. Francoiz Breut did a great cover as well on Une Saison Volée (2005). See Françoise sing the song here. (Merci à Bibi for the mp3s)

Françoise Hardy - Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour
Os Mutantes - Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour
Francoiz Breut - Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour

Charlotte

Charlotte Gainsbourg, as seen by her husband (the lucky bastard!)
(merci René)

vrijdag 22 december 2006

Mauve



Chère Mauve,

No, your song A La Vie A La Mort is not in the Filles Sourires 15 (see below). Why? Because it is hors categorie. When I heard it the for the first time on your MySpace-site, I fell in love. Completely: butterflies in my belly, dreamy gaze, the urge to light up 100 candles, throw rosepetals on the floor and read Byron-poems. The works.
Your ultra-sexy, husky voice, the dramatic piano, the fuzzguitar, the slow, sultry rhythm: even when I try to describe it, it tingles everywhere. The short video that was made for the song, shows a gorgeous, doe-eyed girl in a white dress: a little girl lost. I've watched it probably 50 times - and still get annoyed when the film ends before the song ends. What happened? Ran out of tape? Did it become to emotional for you? Was the cameraman too hot 'n bothered?
There's a lot of questions regarding you. There not a scrap of biographical information, the only thing I know is that you're living in Paris, and that you and a bunch of great musicians and even a better producer (is that him, the backing vocals on Boire a la Source?) made at least two wonderful, very filmic tracks. Very Air-working-with-Charlotte, Guy Chambers & Sophie Hunter or J-L Murat & Jenifer Charles. Among the things you love, stated on your MySpace-site, are artists like Scissor Sisters, Nico, Uffie, Joy Division, Satie, Tchaikowsky (you don't say, with all those dramatic pianochords) and post pre-90's Madonna. So: you like to dress up, boogie down and be moved to tears. But that's about all I (we) get to know. Google draws blanks. You like to tease: almost every message you've send me, ends with sentences like 'French kiss', or 'Je t'embrasse'. Makes the butterflies go nuts,I can tell you that. It took a while before I got the mp3's of your songs, which I think you did on purpose: the hunt is better than the catch. So please, stay as mysterious as long as possible. But keep wowing me (us) with beautiful songs and beautiful pictures.

Grand bisou,

Mauve - A La Vie A La Mort
Mauve - Boire a la Source

woensdag 20 december 2006

Filles Sourires Fifteen


2006 is coming to an end - and what a year it was. Not only did I become a father, I got the chance to spend a half hour in the presence of Charlotte Gainsbourg, and stare for 40 minutes in the steelblue eyes of Carla Bruni. Plus I dj'ed at a fantastic Gainsbourg-tribute in Amsterdam, and my ears got treated to a lot of lovely voices and chansons. Here's a roundup of the 15 best Filles Sourires-songs of 2006.
[NOTE: ALL FILES ARE DOWN!]
1. Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5.55
Brilliant album (also called 5.55), great lyrics. Yes, most are in English, but do you care? I don't. (Video)
2. Camille - Au Port
Taken from the utterly fantastic Live au Trianon-album, on which the hugely talented Camille shows that you just need a voice, very few instrumentation and a lot of présence to wow a public. Or a listener. (Video)
3. Emilie Simon - Fleur de Saison
Rock with a gentle, wide-eyed touch. Taken from the versatile Végétal. (Video)
4. Lio - Vieil Ami
Glorieus comeback of the eighties Pop Model. Dites Au Prince Charmant is an album by a woman scarred, but not broken.
5. Jeanne Cherhal - La Peau sur les os
My current obsession. Her third album L'Eau is a masterful collection of intelligent popsongs. (Video of Voilà)
6. Yelle - Je veux te le voir
The new Lio, with a foul mouth. Future's looking bright for this electropop-princess (release that song with that Heaven 17-sample already!) (Video)
7. Mareva Galanter - On Roule à 160
Suddenly, this beautiful woman (ex-Miss France) popped up with a great collection of covers, with added ukelele. Ukuyeye is the surprise-smash of 2006. (Scopitone)
8. Elodie Frégé - Le Velours des Vierges
Another cover, this time written by Serge for Jane, but bettered by a former Star Ac-contestant. With Benjamin Biolay overseeing most of her second album Le Jeu des 7 Erreurs, very little could go wrong. (Video for La Ceinture)
9. Jane Birkin - La Reine Sans Royaume
The Queen-mum made a Serge-free, but still wonderful album, in the year she hit the big six-o, the year her former lover was remembered all over the world (via a so-so tribute-album) and her daugther made the best album of the year.
10. Axelle Red - Papillon
For a while, we were led to believe Jardin Secret was the last album from the Flemish red fury. She still has ambivalent feelings for the music industry, but promises to keep writing and recording songs. Phew. (Video for Temps pour nous)
11. Lady Palavas - Cuisine Actuelle
Made some great friends, and discovered a lot of great artists via MySpace. One of the bestest is retro-band Lady Palavas - groovy, baby!
12. Claire Diterzi -Infidèle
I like a touch of gothicness. Fairytale music from a talent-to-watch. (Video for Je Me Souviens dans la Neige)
13. Dorval - Celle Que Vous Croyez
Title-track of the second album by the illustre duo, that I thought had disappeared forever. But no. Thank God no. (Video via Dorval-site)
14. Austine - Leitmotiv
The embodiement of what Filles Sourires stands for. The fille of the fillest, if you like.
15. Adrienne Pauly - J'veux un Mec
Ravenhaired beauty wants a boyfriend. Do you take side-orders, mamzelle? (Video)

Amelia & Les Anges


Guestpost! Martijn of Thinksmall-blog on Amelia and the angels:

In real life, Amelia Fletcher is a 40-year old mother of two, who works at some high position in the British government. But this is not real life, this is Pop Life, where Amelia will always be the blondhaired girl from Oxford that started Talulah Gosh twenty years ago. Even though Talulah Gosh went on to become Heavenly,
Marine Research and, currently, Tender Trap, Amelia's twee voice, sweet lyrics and shy appearance have always stayed the same. And so has her semi-legendary status among generations of pop kids. Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges is, to my best of knowledge, the only song she ever sung in French (Tender Trap has a song that is half-Spanish though). It is from Heavenly's last album Operation Heavenly which appeared not long after the suicide of their drummer, and Amelia's younger brother, Matthew. It is originally written by Mr. Gainsbourg and
performed by Mme Gall, but of course you knew that already. If not, here's the original version too.

Heavenly - Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges
France Gall - Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges

dinsdag 19 december 2006

Carla, George

Just got back from Paris, and my 40-minute interview with Carla Bruni. Yes, she's as beautiful in the flesh as she is on pictures. Yes, she really has that husky voice. Yes, she's as chaotic and unmanageable as she appears in earlier interviews - no need for a questionnaire, Carla decides what to tell and when to tell it. Unfortunately, the interview did not take place at her appartment, as promised, but at a posh hotel (Hotel Square, near the big radio building), because her little boy was ill. We laughed a lot, she sang some lines of other songs (by the Rolling Stones, f.i.) and gave me some background on her decision to put poems by Auden, Yeats and others to music. Inspiration, in short. After the interview (Carla gave me two goodbye-kisses!), which will run in a Dutch magazine in January, I hit Gibert Joseph on Blvd St-Michel. There I bought about 30 cd's, among them a 2006 update of the George Brassens-tribute Les Oiseaux de passage (from 2001, featured here before), called Putain de Toi. And guess what: Carla is on it - hear her live-rendition of Fernande. The title-track is sung by another FS-favourite, Olivia Ruiz. This girl likes to Rock On!

Carla Bruni - Fernande
Olivia Ruiz - Putain de toi


UPDATE:The first single of Carla's new album No Promises is called Those Dancing Days are Gone. The lyrics are a poem by W.B. Yeats.
Carla Bruni - Those Dancing Days are Gone

maandag 18 december 2006

Christmas Souvenir

Smelling like tannenbaum? Hoping for nice presents? Wearing only red stockings? You're feeling the holiday spirit then, and adding to that feeling is Noël, by Spanish FS-favourites Souvenir (that's singer Patricia on the picture). Noel is taken from a special X-Mas album, Cuentos de Navidad, featuring Apenino, Nadadora, Montevideo, Ama, Polar and Uke. Even better news is that Souvenir are working on their next album, and Jaime from the band tells me that "it's going to be absolutely danceable, a significant twist from our last album. Very 80's and techno-pop". Yay! French eighties! Souvenir already recorded a very nice cover of Corynne Charby's Boule de Flipper, so this sounds very promising!

Together with Souvenir and my little drummer boy, I wish all visitors and contributors of Filles Sourires Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!

Souvenir - Noël

Lizzy

You're a girl, you met a nice looking guy in a bar, you're both in the mood so you take the fella home. But as soon as you lock your door, the nice looking guy turns into, well, a not so good mannered man. I'm pretty sure that is what Lizzy Ling means when she sings about Le Tigre Dans Le Bungalow, one of the songs from her forthcoming album. She sings, plays synths and guitar and writes her own lyrics, although she got some help from Jean Fauque and François Bernheim - Fauque wrote for and worked with Claudine Longet, André Popp, Alizée, Patricia Kaas and Alain Bashung. He also knew Gainsbourg! Lizzy got acquinted to Fauque via Moonbootica, who teamed up both for a song.
Lizzy has a sexy-but-sophisticated voice, that works good with her lounge-tinged songs. Think Clementine, Pizzicato 5. For her album (no label signed her yet) (shame!) she got help from Minimatic - everything this genius touches I like, so Lizzy's upcoming album can't be anything but great.

UPDATE: Lizzy emailed: "I wanted to say thank you to people who commented. Happiness for 2007 !!!"




Lizzy Ling - Le Tigre Dans Le Bungalow

donderdag 14 december 2006

Jeanne


I'm working on a list of the best songs of 2006 (FS-related, ofcourse), and a highranking fille on that list will be Jeanne Cherhal. I think her album L'Eau is one of the best I heard this year. Next week I will do a countdown. If those lists are your thing, check out my good online-friend Alexandre's line-up.

Thanks to René, I got hold of the 2005 Tôt ou Tard compilation featuring duets from all artists of the ToT-label. On it is a beautiful duet between Françoiz Breut and Bastia Lallemant, that I will post later. Jeanne is doing it with no less than four guys. A funny electropop-ditty with Franck Monnet, a Dream-A-Little-Dream-ish ballad with Thomas Fersen, another threesome with JP Nataf and Lallement and a tender team-up with grandmaster Jacques Higelin.

Jeanne Cherhal & Franck Monet - Tout le monde se sert dans mon assiette
Jeanne Cherhal & JP Nataf & Bastian Lallemant - Luna
Jeanne Cherhal & Thomas Fersen
Jeanne Cherhal & Jacques Higelin - La rousse au chocolat

All Hail the Queen


Today, December 14, Jane Birkin turned 60. Bonne anniversaire!

Jane Birkin - Yesterday Yes a Day

Dansez Maintenant

If it's sweetened, husky French voices, we're all ears here at FS. Musical style does not really matter - every now and then we sure like to get down 'n boogie. Here's three examples.

Kicking off with Hektor, a band that was featured here before. There first album Dans ta guele is out, and if this synthpop-tornado (think Superbus, Lio, Yelle, Chicks on Speed) does not hit you in the face, it sure is murder to your hips and knees. I just love the tipsy way Carine is singing, like she had just one glass of white wine too much before entering the vocal booth. Charming. The titletrack is jump-around-madness; Crever d'Amour is their electronic take on Barry 'Walrus of Love' White's heritage, and more suitable for horizontal dancing. Also check their MySpace-site.

Hektor - Dans Ta Gueule
Hektor - Crever d'Amour


Next up, from Belgium: Lunabee, also the band providing the illustration. Prenez garde aux flots bleus is the first album of this fille, who fell in love with synthesizers first, then got help from vocalist Pascale Vervloet, two lyricists and superprouducer Pierre Vervloesem (dEUS, X-Legged Sally). Lunabee makes funny, bit weird popmusic, that because of the dreamy sounds, and Pascale's highpitched voice, sounds fairytale-like. A few Lunabee-tracks were remixed, and thus made more danceable. More on MySpace.

Lunabee - Le lion des mers du Sud
Lunabee - Le lion des mers du Sud (Frederic de Carvalho remix)
Lunabee - Poupée de chair


Finally, Alden Tyrell. This Dutch dj/producer is playing all over the world, playing his Giorgio Moroder-influenced, nasty disco. He's on the Rotterdam Clone label, very fitting to his pseudonym, which Martijn Hoogendijk (his real name) took from the movie Blade Runner - Alden Tyrell is the 'boss' of the clones. His track La Voix features the both sweet and stern voice of France's Nancy Fortune (real name Julia Fedida, she's also a dj/producer). La Voix is on Alden's very good compilation Times Like These; a shiny remix is on the Clone-comp ReCloned. More on Alden Tyrell via MySpace.

Alden Tyrell - La Voix
Alden Tyrell - La Voix - Elitechnique remix

Oh, Carla



Guess who's interviewing Carla next week? :-)

maandag 11 december 2006

Poupées that go NO


Michel Polnareff's La Poupée qui fait non, a 1966 ode to either a toddler that is in her nay-saying phase, or a beautiful girl who likes to keep all options open, has been covered many times, in many ways. Even by Polnareff himself: he did an Italian and a German version of the song. Best known cover is by Cristina, the wife of ZE Records boss Michael Zilkha. Back in the eighties, ZE was the label that released Lio, John Cale and Kid Creole & The Coconuts. Cristina Monet was a Harvard educated theatrecritic, who made two albums, with enormous stylistic variety. Her Poupée-version was produced by August Darnell (a.k.a Kid Creole), and as Silverlakeblvd once remarked: "It features clichéd calypso steel drums versus clichéd disco cow bell plus skeletonized fragments of fake Gene Krupa, with vocal stylings by the ineffable Cristina, sounding like a lunatic talking to herself in the street."
Saint Etienne did a English language cover for a Polnareff tribute, whilst Italian newwave-disco hero Ivan Cattaneo covered it in Italian. Mylene Farmer did a live version en duo with the king of raï Khaled, American rockband slash francophiles Luna rocked it, and French teen star Danielle made a europoptrash version last year. Ofcourse the song was redone by a Japanese artist, in this case Sonoko.

UPDATE: thanks to Dennis and Frans, this post has grown enormously. Merci guys! If you have more versions, please share (see profile for email).

The Master
Michel Polnareff - La Poupée qui fait non (see on Daily Motion)
Michel Polnareff - Meine Puppe sagt nein (in German) (see on YouTube)
Michel Polnareff - La bambolina che fa no no no (in Italian)

Female French
Cristina - La Poupée qui fait non
Sonoko - La Poupée qui fait non
Elli Medeiros & Jacno - La Poupée qui fait non
Mylene Farmer & Khaled - La Poupée qui fait non (see on YouTube)
Danielle - La Poupée qui fait non

Male French
NEW: Johnny Hallyday - La Poupée qui fait non
Les Sultans - La Poupée qui fait non (see on YouTube)
Luna - La Poupée qui fait non
Florent Pagny & Kad Achouri - La Poupée qui fait non
C. Jerome - La Poupée qui fait non

Female English

Saint Etienne - La Poupée qui fait non
Saint Etienne - La Poupée qui fait non (live) (see on YouTube)

Male English
The Birds - La Poupée qui fait non
Jimi Hendrix - La Poupée qui fait non
The Otherside - La Poupée qui fait non
Finnegans Wake - La Poupée qui fait non
Scott McKenzie - La Poupée qui fait non

Male Italian

Quelli - La Bambolina che fa no no no
Ivan Cattaneo - La Bambolina che fa no no no
Alberto Camorini - La Bambolina che fa no no no

Female Japanese
Nomoto Karia - Non Non Ningyou

NEW: Female Spanish
Los Compays - La muñeca que dice no

John


Another MySpace-discovery: John (real name Johanna). She started out as a dancer and choreographer, but after she discovered the power of her voice over her feet, she wanted to express herself in another way. She collaborated with Dominique Pankratoff, who wrote for Isabelle Aubret and Michèle Torr. Other lyrics were written by people like Jean-Marie Moreau and Julie Daroy. John's voice is fragile and very sensual, and reminds me a little of Keren Ann - her MySpace-url isn't Myspace.com/labiographiedejohn by coincidence, I guess. No album yet, for her career is just starting, but John has made a videoclip you can see on her that site.


John - Vu de l'interieur

woensdag 6 december 2006

Carla

On January 15, No Promises will be in the shops. FINALLY the new album by Carla Bruni, and as you can tell from that title, it's all in English. Yes, I'll hold [...]. Louis Bertignac was at the controls again, so the atmosphere of 2002's Quelqu'un m'a dit was kept. For the lyrics, texts written by William Butler Yeats, Wystan Hugh Auden, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Walter de la Mare and Dorothy Parker were used. If you surf to Carla's official site right now, you can listen to two new songs.
Carla sang in English before, for instance Those Little Things (Ces Petits Riens) on the tribute Mr Gainsbourg Revisited, and on Oceana, trumpeteer Till Brönner's last album. My Secret Life is a cover of a Leonard Cohen-song.

Till Brönner & Carla Bruni - My Secret Life
Carla Bruni - Those Little Things
PLUS: Carla in Italian, featuring jazz-legend Aldo Romano:
Carla Bruni & Aldo Romano - Io qui tu li
PLUS: a cover of Quelqu'un m'a dit by Les Enfoirés, which is a for-the-occasion team-up of Marc Lavoine, Patrick Bruel, Zazie and Francis Cabrel:
Les Enfoirés - Quelqu'un m'a dit

Roxane



Remember Roxane K? The little tease is preparing an album along with her guitar called Octobre, due next spring. Via this site, you can pre-order one, or at least show your interest in her debut. And why wouldn't you? She'll be our Lily Allen. Our Arctic Monkey. Our whatever other artist that was discovered on MySpace first. More Roxane here and here.

dinsdag 5 december 2006

Amelie

Lately, thanks to FS-readers I'm discovering wonderful French songs and artists from the eighties. Santo Gold introduced me to Amélie Morin. You could say she's the eighties-equivalent of Clothilde: off the hook music with a delicate, girlie voice. Amélie was born in Paris, but grew up in Quebec. In Montreal, she sang and danced. When she returned to Paris, she found a job as voice of a cult-cartoonseries called Candy. When Jean-Yves Luley asked for her help while recording a couple of songs (among them the duet J'y vois bien dans ta tête), she was discovered by two wide-eyed producers - their first meeting inspired them to write Amélie's first 1981-hitrecord, J'tais venue pour dire bonjour. This combination of gothic chants, a pouting little girl and a reggaebeat became a culthit in France. She recorded more songs, like the mad gypsy-opera Rien ne vas plus and hot pink bubblegum-dancetrack Jim, plus a couple of albums. When she stepped out of the spotlights, she kept voicing films and tv-series. It's been 25 years since J'tais venue pour dire bonjour was released, in September a double compilation came out. This very dedicated site says there were talks of a comeback. As far as I know, nothing happened.

Amélie Morin - J'tais venue pour dire bonjour
Amélie Morin - Rien ne vas plus
Jean-Yves Luley & Amélie Morin - J'y vois bien dans ta tête

Austine (4)

I've been singing the praise of lovely Austine for over a year now - finally her first full album Ouh la la la hit the stores. And it's marvellous. If there ever was a singer who defined 'fille sourire', ít's Austine. Her tender, breathy voice, the gentle acoustic guitar, the songs about being vulnarable, being in and out of love and darker stuff - you could say she's the Françoise Hardy of our time. Born in Lille, living in Rennes right now, Austine made two EP's and now this album On her MySpace-site you can see her musical favourites are chanson-big guns like Brassens and Vian, softpop-heroes like Prefab Sprout and Belle & Sebastian, plus Gainsbourg, Fela, Dylan and Marvin. This MySpace-site also offers a free download of a non-album track!

Austine - Cigale Glacée
Austine - Décalquée

maandag 4 december 2006

Lilee



Remember triphop? Back in the nineties, I devoured almost every band and artist who were categorised as triphop - although not every band liked that label. Sneaker Pimps were one of my favourite bands, their first album Becoming X is a collection of sultry, sexy spherical songs. Almost every new dance-genre gets tiresome after a while, and so did triphop. I kept a couple of albums that still work, by the bigshots like Massive Attack and Portishead, but also by fairly unknown bands like Mono and Andrea Parker, and do play them every now and then. Sneaker Pimps-memories (I saw them a couple of times back in the day, when Kelli Dayton still sang with them, awesome band) came back when I heard Respire by Lilee. Industrial undertones, sexy vibe, jazzy overtones. Love it. Very little is known about this Belgian singer, and she likes to keep it that way. For now. Rumours that Lilee is also writer-director Rachel Lecomte are not denied, though.

Lilee - Respire
(Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar)

donderdag 30 november 2006

Belinda

February next year, Voilà will be released, the new album by former Go-Go's-singer Belinda Carlisle. In the eighties, she had massive solo-hits with Heaven is a Place on Earth (sampled by Orbital as well) and Leave a Light On. The redhead, who posed for Playboy in 2001, has had a knack for France and French music for a long time. Voilà therefore is a collection of covers, ranging from Serge & Brigitte's Bonnie & Clyde (that was featured here before) to Piaf's Sous le Ciel de Paris. Voilà was produced by John Reynolds (who worked with Indigo Girls and U2), Brian Eno was on keyboards and Natacha Atlas on backing vocals. Belinda's vocals are (and were) a bit of an acquired taste, and so is her accent. Still, her dedication and love for Gallic musique should be applauded, even if her semi-erotic version of Contact (no one can top Brigitte, so why try harder?), or the dance-version of La Vie en Rose are ill-advised.
But Hardy's Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp, with those say-goodbye-to-my-youth-lyrics, is a very wise choice. It also gives me the chance to (re-)post the original, Entrée d'Artistes. If anyone recognises her, please let me know. We've identified her, she's called Marie Louva.

Belinda Carlisle - Ma Jeunesse Fout le Camp
Françoise Hardy -Ma jeunesse Fout le Camp (Hardy on YouTube)
Lola Dutronic - Ma Jeunesse Fout le camp
Marie Louva - Ma Jeunesse Fout le Camp

woensdag 29 november 2006

Ouragan


Princess Stephanie of Monaco was the Paris Hilton of her time (the eighties) - a beautiful heir who witnessed the death of her mother (actress Grace Kelly), partied like there was no tomorrow, had lots and lots of well-publicized and very short-lived relations (ranging from actor Rob Lowe to an elephant trainer) and had an equally short-lived pop career. Her biggest hit was Ouragan - Irresistible in the English translation, probably because the literal translation 'tropical storm' didn't have enough appeal. She dabbled in fashion design, modelling and ofcourse had a perfume named after her. After Ouragan, Stephanie duetted with Michael Jackson - rock royalty meets the King of Pop. After that, the princess refrained from making music. Her mark was made. Ouragan, not a good song but certainly a defining eighties-track, has been covered a few times. Never better than the original (au contraire), but it keeps popping up. French popsuperstar Leslie and German indie-queen Elke Brauweiler are the most recent additions.

Stephanie - Ouragan
Stephanie - Irresistible
Dejaé - Ouragan
Kelly G - Ouragan
Leslie - Ouragan
Elke Brauweiler - Ouragan

Soldat Rose

Remember Le Soldat Rose? The musical, based on the children's book by Louis Chedid and Pierre-Dominique about a very lively toy store, has been performed in Paris last week. YouTube has a short feature. An illustrated album was released too, featuring songs by Vanessa Paradis (I already posted that one), Jeanne Cherhal, Albin de la Simone and M(athieu Chedid). I'm not a big fan of adult artists making music aimed at children (K3 springs to mind), and I think that most songs on the album make more sense on stage than at home on the couch. But with Cherhal, Paradis and the hugely talented M (see him and Vanessa perform a great song here, he produces her new album which will be released in 2007) you really can't go wrong.

Jeanne Cherhal - La Valse Des Etiquettes
Jeanne Cherhal, Vanessa Paradis, Sanseverino, Benabar, Louis Chedid - Un Papa, Une Maman

Daya


So take a good look at my face, you see my smile looks out of place. As you get closer it's easy to trace, the tracks of my tears. Smokey Robinson sang it waaaay back in the sixties, lovely chanteuse Belge Daya has her own take on this theme with Mes Yeux Rouges. She writes: "It is a song I wrote about 2 years ago. It's about a girl. She meets her ex-boyfriend and it is quite painful. There is still pain in her heart. But she's also very proud and makes all sorts of excuses for her red eyes: it's an allergy, it's her contact lenses, it's the rain etcetera. She wouldn't admit it's because she still loves him. No way!
I had just split up when I wrote the song. Although I was lucky not to meet him for a while...I imagined what it would be like to meet him and the excuses I would need to make for my red eyes! No way I'd admit I was suffering ;-) That guy was such a ladykiller! Somehow, it was a relief to write this song. It was the first step to my recovery." Have that box of Kleenex ready when you listen.

Daya - Mes Yeux Rouges

Ces bottes sont faites pour marcher

Public service announcement: More than 25 versions of Nancy Sinatra's classic These Boots are made for Walking, including a few French covers, can be downloaded @ Dans Mon Café.

dinsdag 28 november 2006

Adrienne

About time I posted some songs by 26-year old actress/singer Adrienne Pauly - her first album was released a month ago and it's one of the best cd's I've heard this year. Her style has been compared to Guesch Patti (should post a song by her too) and rightly so. Adrienne, who worked as an actress with bigshots like Claude Chabrol, rocks with plenty of attitude. Listen to Méchant Cafard. But Pauly can be tender too - when she takes you in her arms. Look at this video, doesn't she look like a younger, sexier version of Patti Smith?

Adrienne Pauly - Méchant Cafard
Adrienne Pauly - Dans mes bras

Françoise

One of Françoise Hardy's biggest fantasies was to sing with...Julio Iglesias. She says so in the liner notes to Parentheses, her new album on which this fantasy comes true. In fact: more fantasies become reality, like duetting with Alain Delon (who, by the way, has his own brand of cigarettes in Cambodia) and pianiste Helene Grimaud. Parentheses is, you guessed it, a duet-album. Proposed by her record company, it features a few usual suspects (Jacques Dutronc, Benjamin Biolay, Alain Bashung, Arthur H) and some odd ones out, like Iglesias and Grimaud. There's one English duet, with singer-songwriter Ben Christophers. Not every combination works, and certainly not every male partner lives up to his reputation. But Françoise does, bless her. [Merci á Frans]

Françoise Hardy & Julio Iglesias - Partir Quand Même
Françoise Hardy & Benjamin Biolay - Des Lendemains Qui Chantent
Françoise Hardy & Rodolphe Burger - Cet Enfant Que Je T'avais Fait (best song on the album, methinks)

maandag 27 november 2006

Sarah

As far as I know, La ballade de Saint Etienne is the only French song British trio Saint Etienne ever recorded. Which is both odd, and a shame. Odd, because Saint Etienne refer a great deal to French music (in the same way Stereolab does). A shame, because Sarah Cracknell's breathy, slight off-key vocals fit the language very well. The origins of Saint Etienne date back to the early '80s, when childhood friends Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs began making party tapes together in their hometown of Croydon, Surrey, England. After completing school, the pair began worked various jobs — most notably, Stanley was a music journalist — before deciding to concentrate on a musical career in 1988. Adopting the name Saint Etienne from the French football team of the same name, the duo moved to Camden, where they began recording. From pretty generic house, they moved to more atmospherical electronica - a more suitable backdrop for Sarah Cracknell's voice. She also made an underrated solo-album. La ballade is taken from SE-compilation Interlude. (Merci Dennis)

Saint Etienne - La ballade de Saint Etienne

donderdag 23 november 2006

Le Tour 3


Thomas Bohnet is a German francophile who partly makes a living out of promoting French popmusique (he's also working for a German concertpromotor). He hosts two regular Franzosendisko-nights called Tour de France (in Munich and Berlin, but he also plays in cities like Frankfurt, Saarbrücken, Erlangen, Regensburg, Vienna, Zürich, Linz...), and compiles cd's featuring the salmon's nose (as we say in Pays-Bas) of French music. Le Tour 3 has just been released, featuring danceable tunes by genremixers like Babylon Circus, Rachid Taha and Sinsemilia, Filles Sourires-faves like Emilie Simon, Pauline Croze and Olivia Ruiz and and exclusive track by Phonoboy, Viertelfransozen from Munich. Thomas sure knows his way around the newest French tunes, check tracklists of earlier editions here and here.
Two examples from Le Tour 3: a duet between pretty boy Marc Lavoine and Gainsbourg-belle Bambou, plus a Je t'aime moi non plus-cover by Swiss band Core22.

Marc Lavoine & Bambou - Dis-moi que l'amour
Core22 - Je t'aime moi non plus

woensdag 22 november 2006

Clemence

Time for some serious art on Filles Sourires: 21 Love Hotel's Ennui is based on a poem by Belgian symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck. He received the Nobel Literature Prize in 1911. 21 Love Hotel are Clemence Léauté & Frederic Oberland. They write: "A friend of ours directed a play based on Maeterlinck's poems and asked us to dream about the music. That's what we did with Ennui. It was a great opportunity to work on a French text (21 Love Hotel usually sings in English - Gzbrg), so musical and evocative. We did everything together, as always, and we're happy to offer a very different song, une chanson. We play every instruments, guitar, tubular bells, chinese bells, piano, old music box, acoustic bows, metronome, etc."
Ennui is short, but intriguing. If you heard it once, you want to hear it again. It reminds me a lot of the atmosphere on the first This Mortal Coil-album, or the work of Susanna and the Magical Orchestra. Read a very nice review of 21 Love Hotel's songs here.

21 Love Hotel - Ennui
Download a podcast on, and by 21 Love Hotel from here. Read an interview with the jolly duo here.

Véronique


Guestpost! Jean-Luc on Véronique Jannot, who sang on an absolute gorgeous French eighties-classic. Get your shoulderpads out!

Véronique Jannot is a French actress whose star shone brightest (in France) at the beginning of the 80's. She starred in the popular tv-series Pause Café as a social worker in a highschool, much loved by both pupils and teachers. At the time, she was the right face at the right time and place. She also starred in a big-screen movie called Tir Groupé, with then-popular actor Gérard Lanvin. Like many of her female colleagues (Isabelle Adjani, Catherine Deneuve, to name but two), she decided to sing and recorded a bunch of so-so songs written by Pierre Bachelet. Let's just say not everybody had the opportunity to work with Serge Gainsbourg.
In the mid-seventies, she recorded a duet with my favourite French composer, Laurent Voulzy. The song was called Désir, Désir, and was an instant hit in France. In 1988, Voulzy composed another song for her, with lyrics by Alain Souchon, one of my favourite French songwriters (Souchon and Voulzy have been writing songs together since 1974). Voulzy, as a composer is musically influenced by Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney (no less). The song was called Aviateur, and tells the story of a young woman attracted by aviators, flying jackets, etcetara. Perhaps a metaphor for the French expression 's'envoyer en l'air', which means having delightful sex ;-). This song is absolutely lovely, the quintessence of the Souchon/Voulzy collaborative power to my ears. Of course, Alain Souchon has written better lyrics since, and Laurent Voulzy has composed better music since, but I DO LOVE that song!!! Waaaay better than Ouragan by Princess Stephanie de Monaco. [True, but Steph sure looked good - Gzbrg] See Aviateur-video here.

Veronique Jannot - Aviateur

dinsdag 21 november 2006

Corinne

One of the tracks that I, according to LastFM, keep playing is Partir Ailleurs by Milo. This French duo (Pierre Rougean, Corinne Lougan) made one untitled album that was released last year. I have no clue how or where I got Partir Ailleurs, but I know why it keeps popping up: that melancholy-filled voice of Corinne, an avid Françoise Hardy-fan. [Speaking of which: Hardy will be releasing a new album!] The music reminds me a little of the first Air-album, as does Je n'ai plus 20 an. The album is a mixed bag of these looking-sad-through-the-rainy-window-song, and more upbeat, sixties-poptunes. Reviews were mixed (here, here and here), I think they have a very snug sound and hope they continue making music. Pierre Rougean is also working with young bands, like De Calm.

Milo - Partir Ailleurs
Milo - Je n'ai plus 20 ans

Gillian (4)



Anything you need to know about cheeky girl Gillian Hills you can read @ Cha Cha Charming. Read it, while listening to this oh-so-lovely song, that made me fall in love with Gillian just a little deeper. Thanks to J-L for the mp3.

Update:

Rockfort writes: "Our next Rockfort live night at The Social, near Oxford Circus in London, on Monday 27th November, will feature a performance from Filles Sourires-approved Mademoiselle, as well as Kaptiv, John and Jehn and The Mount Cherries... and also Gillian Hills herself reading some of her (French) poetry and Vanessa from Vanessa and the Os DJ-ing." A Woo! would in place here, I think.

Gillian Hills - Cou-Couche Panier

France


Regular guestposter Jean-Luc unveils a sex-oriented, grungy drummer/singer. Who can be very tender as well:

France Cartigny is not exactly a 'Fille Sourire' - but Camille isn't either, is she?. This France is a drummer, she sounds quite grungy, and her record sounds a bit like the first Breeders album, or any album by the Kelly Deal 6000 (yeah, I do love the Pixies ;-)). If you're still in a "French-girl-and-a-piano" mood, you should dig Jésus les Garçons. Eponyme was her comeback-album, released in 1999; Cartigny started her carreer in France at the tender age of 14. She released another album in 2004, called En Place (which I never got to listen). In addition to being very funny, almost all of her lyrics are VERY sex-oriented. I like her very much, and not ONLY because of that. I like her voice and her 'I don't give a f*ck' attitude. Nowadays, she's in a trio called Les France Cartigny. See?

France Cartigny - Jésus Les Garçons
France Cartigny - Daniel & Amelie
France Cartigny - Les Oiseaux Les Ours (from En Place)

Pleased to meet you, I'm Isabelle



I'm Isabelle Adjani, apparently. Naïve, but sexy. Fine with me. Do the test Which French New Wave Actrice Are You here, and spill the results in the comments.
And to celebrate my Isabelladjani-ness, here's a song from her Serge Gainsbourg-written album Pull Marine.

Isabelle Adjani - Je t'aime idiot

maandag 20 november 2006

Babet


In France, everybody knows her as Babet, but her real name is Elisabet Maistre. She plays guitar, violin, keys and sings in rockband Dionysos. To be honest: I'd never heard of this band, but according to this Wiki, it's one of the most interesting bands in the Hexagone. They hail from Valance, made six albums (one of them produced by noisemeister Steve Albini, another by PJ Harvey-collaborator John Parish) and mix French and English vocals. Their foreign counterparts are Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey and Beck. They're also highly influenced by filmmakers like Lynch and Burton.
Babet will be releasing a soloalbum next year, first single Le Marin is a folky, salty affair. Also check out Babet's MySpace-site for a soothing acoustic ballad. Posted here as well is Thank You Satan, a Leo Ferré-song that Dionysos brilliantly covered for a Ferré-tribute, that features Babet's singing and violinplaying.


Babet - Le Marin
Dionysos - Thank You Satan
More Dionysos, thanks to J-L:
Dionysos - Anorak
Dionysos - Longboard Train

Marina

Not only did the superlovely Marina Celeste pose in lingerie by Lorelen (see photo, and click here), she announces on her MySpace-site the release of her album Acidule in France in January 2007. Quote: "Featuring Marc Collin's delicate and original arrangements, the mood of this French pop album is both ethereal and sparkling, in the vein of the artists she admires... from Kate Bush to Cocteau Twins, Beth Hirsh/Air, Fraser/Massive Attack." Thát good, you ask? That good, I say. You might know Marina from her Japan-only released album Cinema Enchantée (featuring covers of songs from movies), and ofcourse from her role in Nouvelle Vague.

Marina Celeste - Le Temps Elastique

zondag 19 november 2006

Anna

On every edition of chill-out compilation series Hotel Costes, there are a few nice tracks. The recently released 9th edition sports Jazzanova, Rhythm & Sound and S-Tone Inc. Best track, however, is Belle by Marseille-based triphop-maker Alif Tree. Belle is taken from second album French Cuisine (Alif is an avid cook), which sports vocal samples from Nina Simone, Shirley Horn and Anna Karina. But which song did he use for Belle? Any ideas?

Alif Tree feat. Anna Karina - Belle

(btw: feeling the holiday spirit yet? maybe this blog can help)

Melanie & Ketchup


Melanie Bauer used to be the voice of Oui FM, for years she did the quite influential radioshow Ketchup & Marmelade. As I understand it, she's the French counterpart of Jo Whiley. Or, if you're my age and a listener of Studio Brussel, some kind of Chantal Pattyn. She introduced a lot of international, and French artists to the listeners. Nowadays, Melanie is on Radio Nova, but to relive her K&M-days, this year a compilation was released featuring her favourite French artists (most of them she introduced to the French public), and collaborations with young French artists like Vendetta, Christophe Crenel and the omnipresent Marc Collin. Melanie has a sultry, bit husky singing voice, I especially like her in the Stereolab-ish song with Crenel.

Melanie Bauer & Marc Collin - Brigade Mondaine
Melanie Bauer & Christophe Crenel - La Pieuvre

Camille & M


A Dutch magazine asked for my Records-of-the-Year-list. Wasn't easy to come up with - not because there weren't ten great albums released this year, but to choose and fit all my faves in just a Filles Sourirees-top ten. More on that later. While scanning my blog and iTunes for albums, I bumped into this great version of Jacques Brel's Au Suivant, a song about losing your virginity while in the army, by M(athieu Chedid) and Camille. It was recorded for the French tv-show Taratata. YouTube offers a lot of great live performances from that show. Like this duet by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Neil Hannon, or this one by the scantilly clad Emilie Simon. (Merci René, Alexandre)

M & Camille - Au Suivant
Jacques Brel - Au Suivant

donderdag 9 november 2006

Emma


Emma Daumas from Avignon was destined to be a popsinger: she wrote her first song when she was 12, and took part in variours concours de chant, and talent-searches like Star Academy. In 2003, her first single was released, which sold over 200000. Her music's pure pop, with a carefully studied rebellious undertone. Think Avril Lavigne. But Emma writes her own songs - on Effets Secondaires, her second album that was released this year, she got some help (from Maidi Roth, among others), but the best song was written by Emma alone. Ailleurs starts like a Radiohead-cover, but changes into a Gainsbourg-influenced, very sultry rockballad. Hard-rocking guitars are de rigueur on this album - because most songs are pretty bland, one could conclude Emma needs volume to cover up emptiness.
But still, Ailleurs is one of my favourite French rocksongs this year.

Emma Daumas - Ailleurs
Emma Daumas - Dommage

dinsdag 7 november 2006

Jeanette

If it wasn't for Mordi, I would've never known Jeanette's marvellous Porque te vas. The English-born, American-bred and Spain-residing singer with "the tiniest voice I ever heard (dixit songwriter Manuel Alejandro, who wrote her hit Soy Rebelde) was heavily influenced by American folkheroes like Bob Dylan and Donovan. However, Spanish label Hispavox turned the tomboyish frontwoman of folkrockband Pic-Nic into the unwilling, but highly succesfull 'Spanish voice of romance'. Her biggest hit is Porque te vas. ChaChaCharming writes in an excellent article on Jeanette:
No one would have guessed that an upbeat pop song layered in big beats, horns, and wah-wah guitars would mesh with Jeanette's delicate voice, but the result was stunning. Porque te vas faired poorly during the weeks after its release, but the song was revived two years later when director Carlos Saura chose it as the title track for the film Cria Cuervos. The film won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film festival, garnering quite a bit of attention for the soundtrack. Porque te vas was a hit in France, and soon caused a small ripple effect that reached as far as Japan.

The song has been covered many times, far more than I post here. Mostly by cheesy latin popbands and even trancehouse-producers, to disastrous effect. However, there are some good versions, also in French (for instance by German singer Elke Brauwelier, or Canadian crooner Dan Bigras), or by French artists - and this is where the link to this blog comes into play. Here are ten nice, odd and some very bad versions of Porque te vas.

The Original
Jeanette - Porque te vas
Jeanette - Porque te vas (Dreamtime remix)
See Jeanette on YouTube.

The Good
Jeanne Cherhal & Vincent Delerm - Porque te vas (merci Alexandre)
Elke Brauweiler - Pourquoi tu vis
Dan Bigras - Pourquoi tu veux (actually, nice song, but no coverversion. see comments)
NEW: Kahimi Karie - Porque te vas (merci Sky)
NEW: Javier Alvarez - Porque te vas (merci Evaristo)
Andrea Lindsay - Porque te vas
Brigitte Escobar - Porque te vas

The Odd
Los Telebolitos - Porque te vas
Refractory - Porque te vas

The Bad
The Springlove - Porque te vas
Masterboy - Porque te vas

Catherine


Another Catherine (see below), but again from Quebec: Catherine Durand. Last year Diaporama was released, her third album. She was discovered by the guy who also broke Amanda Marshall. Catherine's music and voice are a little understated - folky acoustic guitars with a tender voice that's sometimes just a tad more than a whisper. She studied cinema and communications at the Montreal university, worked as camerawoman for a musicstation and counts Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Union Station and Gillian Welch among her influences. Just like these artists, Catherine isn't ashamed of her religious beliefs - on Diaporama the English song I Still Pray is an ode to Jesus - and maybe the 'he' in many other songs refers to someone else than a former or present lover. Doesn't bother me.

Catherine Durand - Aujourd'hui
Catherine Durand - Je Me Rapelle

Voilà Jeanne



See the new video for Jeanne Cherhal's Voilà above. See the making-of that video here. And download the song from her lovely album L'Eau below.[Merci René]

Jeanne Cherhal - Voilà

maandag 6 november 2006

Klervia


Natasha bumped into Catherine Major (see below), I just got acquinted to Fabienne Kervella, also known as Klervia. A bretonne who moved to Paris, and who's influenced by Raphael, Jeff Buckley, Fiona Apple and Damien Rice (if it's intense, very emotional male singers you like, I strongly recommend Damien's latest album 9).
She sings in both French and English, I immediatly fell for her song Ici Et Maintenant. Klervia explains: "I wrote it 3 years ago. In this intimate and tormented lovesong, I talk to my new boyfriend. I explain my unfortunate past experiences which have left me some scars. Even if I feel fine with him (I repeat it in the refrain: I feel fine here and now, hence the title Ici et Maintenant), I still have doubts and I am still on the defensive side."

Klervia - Ici Et Maintenant

Catherine

Guestpost! Natasha-la-la went fishing for unknown filles online, and caught budding Quebecois singer and pianoplayer Catherine Major.

Besides her undeniable talent as a pianist and singer-songwriter, she has had a very straight and narrow ascent into the music world, dominated by winning tons of prestigious awards and warm media acclaim. And she’s just 26.
Once you’ve proved yourself in your own neck of the woods, it’s time to cross the Atlantic and see what French-speaking Europe thinks of you, the ultimate test for any French Canadian artist. In 2004, Catherine received a prestigious award in France for her first and only album so far Par-dessus bord, which won the Coup de cœur of the Académie Charles Cros. In 2006, she won an award for best singer-songwriter at the Swiss festival Pully à l’heure du Québec. I’d say she on the right track.
She has much passion, sensitivity and emotion. She is a brilliant piano player and a delightful lyricist. I liked her right away. I liked here because she seems and sounds very authentic and not a glossy music business product or just another pretty face. A bit of jazz here, some latin, some African, she plays it all. Her singing on Le ciel gris vaguely reminds me of French singer Belle du Berry of Paris Combo, although it is much more dramatic. Her other songs tell stories and make me wonder what it would be like to hear live.
She has often been the supporting act of another popular singer-songwriter and pianist Richard Desjardins, who made it in Europe a long time ago. Desjardins apparently once told her over a drink that her homework was to listen to all of Bob Dylan, all of Leonard Cohen and all of Léo Ferré. She told him that in order to open for him properly she had to listen to his music first since shopping for his music was what she had been doing that day. Smart girl.

Catherine Major - Le Ciel Gris
Catherine Major - Par-Dessus Bord

woensdag 1 november 2006

Mayane

Not sure what went wrong between gorgeous, fizzy haired Mayane Delem and her recordlabel Delabel - either her debut didn't sell very well, or 'artistic differences' drove them apart. Fact is that Mayanes sophomore release was autoproduit, and released on a very small label (available via iTunes, though). Hard to understand - with a body, a face and a perfect Fillessourires-voice like hers, why is no major label interested? As you can read in this artist profile, Mayane is multitalented (she acts as well), was whipped by music from an early age and she, err, likes to sweat. Second album Petites Chansons Domestiques dans ma Chambre de Disques is a breezy affair, with "des chansons de fille douce-amère et fière de l'être!" She made a few nice videos to accompany her songs. See them at Mayane's MySpace-site.

Mayane - Dans Ma Chambre
Mayane - Tout va Bien

dinsdag 31 oktober 2006

Andrea


Take a porcelain voice, a Vanessa Paradis-like body, a broad musical range (like Petula Clark's), an accent like Birkin et voilà Andrea Lindsay. The description is taken from this review, which also gives some background on the Ontario born songstress, who listened to Janis Joplin and Nirvana as a teen, was part of the duo Tuesday 5 and fell in love with the French language when on holiday in Paris. She then moved to Montréal, and made two albums. This spring, La Belle Étoile was released, again with 'musique francophone avec parfum anglo'. Andrea smuggles some English words and sentences in her songs. But she easily does a Brazilian bossa-classic, or the famous Porque te Vas by Jeannette. Andrea reminds me (and L'hotelier particulier Maks, who told me about Andrea first) a lot of Vanessa Paradis in the early nineties. Andrea even has that space between her teeth. Speaking of which, I just remembered that Dutch rockband Benjamin B. wrote a song about Vanessa Paradis, called Gap: "Your tiny gap keeps me awake, and makes me wonder/It's not your lips I do believe, it's that little space between your teeth."

Andrea Lindsay - Bonne Année
Andrea Lindsay - Porque te vas
Andrea Lindsay - Les Yeux de Marie

Andrea Lindsay on YouTube
-
Benjamin B - Gap

Sous le soleil (2x)


Dutch national weather service warned for heavy storms in the coming night, up to windforce 10. Summer's definitely over now, time to (finally) reminisce. Thanks to Alexandre, here's two melancholic, hello-darkness-my-old-friend-kind of songs, both live recordings. First up is a duet between Arthur H(igelin) and Pauline Croze (she's pictured), taken from a Les Inrocks-compilation. The contrast between Pauline's shaky, husky voice and Arthur's worn out rasp works great, and ofcourse brings back Gainsbourgian memories - with a songtitle like Sous le Soleil de Miami and all.
Speak of the devil: the talented Jeanne Cherhal recently did a nice live-rendition of Sous le Soleil Exactement for French Radio.
Does anybody now if Dusty Springfield's Summer is Over was ever recorded in French?

Arthur H & Pauline Croze - Sous le Soleil de Miami
Jeanne Cherhal - Sous le Soleil Exactement

vrijdag 27 oktober 2006

Sound of musique

Since a few days the blogosphere is enriched by yet another French girls-loving blog: Sound of Musique. First posts look promising, with unreleased and rare song.

And welcome Wall Street Journal-readers! Filles Sourires was featured in the Oct. 23 BlogWatch-column by Beckey Bright ('Wine, Women and Song'). She wrote:

It seems there are a lot of bloggers with a thing for French girls who can sing. For those looking for a daily fix, this is the place. At Filles Sourires, a blogger who calls himself Guuzbourg waxes poetic about chanteuses "singing their wonderful sad and/or sunny songs with their high, breathy voices." Posts range from the recent and unknown to retro cult favorites like Jane Birkin.
Mr. Guuzbourg is all about how music sets a tone, and his writing reflects the sometimes dreamy quality of the music. His posts also provide historical context and biographical notes.


Also, SpikedCandy and Bunch of Betty's were featured, plus various wine-sites and -blogs. The BlogWatch-link above expires in 30 days.

woensdag 25 oktober 2006

Projet Piano (12): France


Guestpost, this time by Jean-Luc, who contributes a lot of songs to this blog (thanks again, J-L)

The album Dancing Disco, released in 1977, was France (real name Isabelle) Gall's second collaboration with great composer Michel Berger. Believe it or not, it was also only her second album, since in the sixties and early seventies, she only released 45 rpms!!. The album is a concept album that tells the story of Maggie, who has got a boring job in a night club/disco (the Dancing Disco). One of the best songs on that album is the short, but sweet Quand on est enfant, with Berger on piano. See an English translation of the song here.

France Gall - Quand on est enfant