Gillian

Rockfort is an ideal radioshow for lovers of French music - this Saturday they run a special on 60s singer Gillian Hill. called: I Was A Ye-Ye Girl.

David from Rockfort previews: "The programme revisits the Ye-Ye-era through tracks from French sixties girl singers like Françoise Hardy, France Gall and Stella, and the Rockfort team (joined by guest presenter Vanessa from Vanessa and the O's) will be talking to a very special guest, original Ye-Ye girl Gillian Hills, who was for a while billed as the new Brigitte Bardot, was wooed by playboy Roger Vadim, performed with Serge Gainsbourg, appeared in Blow Up with Jane Birkin and wrote and performed several (now highly sought after)60s classics. Gillian will be sharing her memories of the period and anecdotes from her own career.We'll be playing a few of Gillian's records (including an unreleased duet with Serge Gainsbourg) plus other girl records from the period, and Gillian will conlcude the show by reading a French poem of her own."

For Londoners, it's on 104.4 Resonance FM, otherwise you can listen on www.resonancefm.com, Saturday 2 Sept 12.30-13.30.

Gillian Hills & Serge Gainsbourg - Une petite tasse d'anxieté
See the video on YouTube.

Mikado

Fourth guest-post of Sebastien, is about dreamgirl Pascale Borel, from the band Mikado:

"Mikado belongs to the world of dreams, sometimes I wonder if this band has really existed. Has Pascale ever sung or is it just another trick of my memory? Is this voice that whispers to my mind real or did it come to me from an erotic dream I used to have in my youth?

Then I rush on my old records to verify: a single called Naufrage en hiver (Wreck in winter) was released in 1986. It’s about standing on a beach in winter, smelling frozen algae, watching the waves that comes and go, falling in love, being lost in the sea. The kind of song to be listened before sleeping, eyes half closed."

Mikado - Naufrage en hiver

Sophie vs Keren

No special reason to post these two tracks, but hey, apart from being beautiful, no track needs a special reason to be posted here. L'Onde Amère is taken from Keren Ann's most recent album Nolita (2004), a delicate, bit sad song about, well, being sad actually - L'Onde Amère translates as Bitter Stream. It was covered by Sophie Hunter and Guy Chambers for their fantastic 2005 Isis Project-cd (for which Keren wrote all lyrics). They made it less sad, more melancholic, with added strings. Although I love the Keren Ann original, this version is my favourite - the organ, the choir, Sophie's voice, it sounds (like the whole album does) like a closing theme of a movie.
Sophie was supposed to be a promising actress, but a part from Hollywood film Vanity Fair, her filmography stayed a bit empty. Great things to come, still? How about another album?!

Keren Ann - L'Onde Amère
Guy Chambers & Sophie Hunter (The Isis Project) - L'Onde Amère

Helena

Wouter over @ The Blues Are Still Blue posted a few tracks by Dillinger Girl & Baby Face Nelson, the new monikers of Frederico Pelligrini and FS-regular Helena Noguerra. Sweet, countrified duets that are in the vein of great collaborations like Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, or Biolay & Mastroianni. All songs are in English (alas), but I recently discovered that Helena is backing up pretty boy Doriand on his first album Contact from 1996. As you know she would, for the album was produced and co-written by Marc Collin - also a FS-regular.

Doriand & Helena - Duo d'un Fil

UPDATE: I stand corrected, there are French songs on the DG&BFN-album. Thanks to Julija over @ Aurgasm, here's an example (don't be, like me, fooled by the title):

Dillinger Girl & Baby Face Nelson - Love

ElodieO

'Minimalist electro-sensual songs', New York Press wrote about ElodieO - they have a way with words, those Noo-yawkers, don't they? But they're spot on: Paris-bred Elodie Ozanne, currently residing in the Big Apple, makes stripped down, laidback and indeed sensual electronic popsongs - Buscate Un Novio placed her between Björk and Keren Ann. She moved to America because she wanted to be part of the West Side Story-like musical world. But she ended up hating the commercial musical world, so instead joined French band Elm. After two records, she made her solo-album as ElodieO. That featured gentle, carressing songs in both French and English. A new record in due on NuBlu-records (associated with the Brooklyn venue), but posted here are the French songs from her debut.

ElodieO - Secret
ElodieO - La Mer
ElodieO - L'Attente

ElodieO is not to be confused with this Elodie.

Kim

In January I did a duet-project on this blog - in the following months I collected more twosomes, like this one by Mademoiselle Kim (pictured) and Guilain. First thought it was an Elvis Costello-cover, but it turned out to be an original (written by Kim and Guilain), with heavy Gainsbourg-undertones. Not a bad thing. Kim, who describes herself as "l'oiseau de nuit, les yeux grands ouverts, les sens en alerte, s'imprègnent des frémissements, soupirs et cris de la pénombre du bois embrumé", sings in this duet in a more uncertain way than usual (not a bad thing either), as you can hear in Les Copines. On her MySpace-site, Kim names Barbara, Edith Piaf, Yann Tiersen and even Sonic Youth as influences. Do you play bass as well, Kim?

Mme Kim & Guilain - Alison
Mme Kim - Les Copines

France à gogo

Time to do some serious fingersnappin'. As you all know, France Gall is and was a very versatile singer - she could easily sing baby pop, latin, ye-ye, German singalongs as French double entendres. But did you know she could swing too? My three favourite Gall-songs are jazzed up with fat double basslines, soulful keys and killer horns - here that cat go in Le Coeur qui jazze. Speaking of 'qui', I have no clue who those cats in the band are, but hell, they make me snap my fingers 'til they're blue.

France Gall - Jazz à Gogo
France Gall - Pense à Moi
France Gall - Le Coeur qui Jazze