King of all media (2)

Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant not only published a very flattering 4 star-review of Filles Fragiles (click), music journo Gijsbert Kamer also reviews the cd on film.

Art Sullivan & Kiki

A great kitschy curiosity in Dutch pophistory is 1977's Et Si Tu Pars by Art Sullivan and Kiki. This single was mentioned on a Dutch forum, I remembered I had this single and decided to post it here. Kiki's full name is Kiki van Oostindië, she was a model (for the 'Alle 13 Goed!' compilations in the seventies) a singer and a songwriter. She helped Dutch rockhero Peter Koelewijn with the lyrics for Patrick Mon Cheri, a song (in English, she sings about her hot summer nights in Cannes) that was later covered by Sheila. After 'Patrick', Kiki made some solo-records, with less success. She even covered Tous Les Garçons, mixed with Dion's Teenager in Love. A mash-up avant la lettre! I couldn't find that cover, so if you have it, please share!
In 1977 Koelewijn hooked Kiki up with Belgian singer Art Sullivan, for the duet Et Si Tu Pars. The song wasn't supposed to be a duet, there's this video in which Art sings solo. It's a dramatic song, the girl wants to leave the guy, but still has feelings for him. The guy sings about what happens when she leaves. It sounds, though, like they're in separate rooms. They probably were.

Kiki & Pearly - Patrick, Mon Cheri
Sheila - Patrick Mon Cheri
Art Sullivan & Kiki - Et Si Tu Pars

Filles Fragiles competition: Winner 5

DJ Sterrenmix from Deventer, Holland, goes all ooh-aah on us, in the final winning entry of the Filles Fragiles giveaway:

I didn’t know which one to choose. Claudine Longet singing her accent-laden rendition of Let’s spend the night together, or something by the Sissi-like romantique of Frida Boccara? Another fave is the lovely ditty Ces bottes sont faites pour marcher by Eileen (idd, a version of Nancy’s These boots…). Hear the erotic tones when she pronounces “Yeah” (0:49) or ”Ha” (1:48).

But going for just one choice, as mr. Guuzbourg asked for, I prefer Le train fou by composer Jacques Denjean, from the great compilation The Sexploitation (Drive Records Italy, 2000). The band lays down an upbeat jazzy rhythm & blues 60’s mod-style cinematographic track with screaming flute & farfisa-organ. While playin’ a smokin’ train-like choo-choo-rhythm, a mademoiselle sighs and screams, varied by a Bluto-kind of male voice showing he enjoys the traindrive too. Watch your speakers melt by the growing tension, outta times when “hufterproof” trains didn’t really exist…

Jacques Denjean - Le Train Fou
Eileen - Ces bottes sont faites pour marcher

EXTRA: more screams of joy in a tribute to the music in Russ Meyer-movies, a mix by Roger Grund (see comments). Because of a nasty virus in my computer, here's a yousendit-file of that mix

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

Filles Fragiles Competition: Winner 4

Ken from Valley Mills, Texas wrote a very flattering piece:

If someone had said to me a couple of years ago that there would come a point when several of my favorite artists would be obscure French pop singers, I would have laughed and turned up The Clash or Johnny Cash. I mean maybe the odd icelandic singer-songwriter sure, but come on - I don't even speak French. So I guess I would have been wrong. I really started thinking about this following a conversation with a friend about new music and I realized that many of my new favorite records are by french pop singers - imagine my surprise.
I don't mean to imply or suggest that I've abandoned any of the oldschool-jangle-modstyle-lofi-dreampop-hardcountry-skaterock-antifolk-postpunk-shoegazing-twee bands that make up the musical quilt that keeps me warm - I've just added some fancy stitching here and there. I guess the reason that I've been drawn to pop songs performed in French (and Portuguese, Swedish, German, Norwegian, etc.) has more to do with how I listen to music now, compared to several years ago. A change in my responsibilities at work resulted in the need for me to spend most of my time in my office, on the computer.
I began to use music to drown out the ambient noise of my co-workers and to help me focus on the reports I have to generate. The problem with this was that too often I would get distracted by the stories in the songs, or by things they would remind me of and I would be skylarking instead of working - deadlines would suddenly be looming from out of nowhere. The funny thing is, I don't really seem to have this problem too much anymore - Emilie Simon, Keren Ann, Sokogirl, Ivy, Melanie Pain, and Carla Bruni all make brilliant, beautiful music that is only occasionally performed in a language I can understand. I enjoy it completely on an aesthetic and emotional level, I'm just not able to sing along most of the time. My co-workers most likely think that's really a good thing.

The silky voice of French-Israeli chanteuse Keren Ann works as a tonic for those times when the stresses of life are working hard to bring you down. Her dreamy songs, sometimes barely rising above a whispered vocal and a delicate melody, will compel you to stop and listen and join her for a few moments – trust me, you’ll be glad you did.
Don’t be fooled by her softness – while the gentleness of the delivery might hint at naiveté, a closer listen will reveal a young lady who has learned some hard lessons. Delightfully, refreshingly – while these lessons have made her strong, her outlook remains innocent and sweet and hopeful. Musically, all of her albums suggest the subtle influences of Jane Birkin and Francoise Hardy but her new self-titled release sees her stretching herself musically to reflect influences that hint at Tom Waits and Emiliana Torrini. The new offering continues to explore the terrain she revealed on her first four solo records, and all of her work is marked by a singular vision - she infuses her strongly emotional aural postcards with subtle, languid arrangements that can send shivers down your spine. Keren Ann takes her gift for channeling mood into song and just quietly devastates the listener.

Emilie Simon - Chanson de Toile (live)
Keren Ann - Manha de Carnaval

King of all Media

Tonight, I am a guest of the cultural radioshow Opium (Avro Radio 1), to talk about Filles Fragiles. Here a Dutch online article on yours truly, here a great review. Here too. This one's in English.

Listen to Filles Fragiles in Realaudio via 3voor12 Luisterpaal.

Filles Fragiles competition: Winner 3

Matt from Columbus, IN, wins with this piece on Iris and Peppermoon.

The French female singing voice is magically timeless, while simultaneously conjuring strong emotional responses associated with classic French New Wave cinema, Paris in the 1920’s, the lover we long for, or the one we no longer have. Iris, of the band Peppermoon, may just be the perfect example of the 21st century “fille fragile”. In the song Nos Ballades, she paints a picture for us in a way that
only a French chanteuse is capable of. Beautifully understated purples and pinks (that seem to be specifically French variations of these hues) and the golden light one sees shining through dark clouds of a storm that has just passed come pouring from her mouth. The melodious piano lines and cleanly strummed acoustic guitar chords are a lovely accompaniment to Iris’ sweet, lilting vocals. The nostalgia she
expresses is French pop in its purest form, the mood a genuinely reflective one, a memory composed of music. The song is capable of causing a twinge in one’s heart or a tear in one’s eye; however, by the end, we hold hope in our hands, like a cherished keepsake. This song is perhaps one of the best illustrations of the fille fragile sound, as it is so wonderfully passionate, colorful, and visual, yet is brought forth with a delicate, gentle touch.

Peppermoon - Nos Ballades