Odile

Manu Markou is celebrating is his tenth anniversary as a recording artist this year, in 1996 his debut Bible Oath was released. In the passing years he made music to a ballet spectacle, and recorded an album with his personal fille sourires Odile Closset. Manu prefers Prince, Serge Gainsbourg and Leonard Cohen, while Odile is a child of the eighties (Cure, U2). You can hear references to those preferences on Mise En Scene, a song about the dramatic end of an affair I found on Manu's MySpace-site which I totally fell in love with. Slow, sultry and sad - that's my preference.

Manu Markou & Odile Closset - Mise En Scene (megaupload)

Veronique

As I said, it's Belga-week over here at FS. Roger Grund send another guestpost for his series on Girls Singing Wiz a French Accent. This one's about Veronique Vincent.

Mixing up English and French was de rigueur in early 80s Belgium Wave. Just think of Arno and his band TC Matic, think also of the influential chanteuse Jo Lemaire, who released an album named Concorde in 1983 with a French and an English side (these were pre-cd times). Thanks to the Belgium Wave and its neighbouring Neue Deutsche Welle a generation of music fans (including the writer of this) broadened its perspective into new territories and discovered non-Anglosaxon influences such as Brel, Gainsbourg and others.
And then there were the Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel. Or were they called the The Honeymoon Killers? In fact both; we’re talking about a groundbreaking collective from Brussels, built around the hugely talented (and sadly deceased) Yvon Vromman. Their Fille Sourire (although smiling was not something that any artist would do in public in those days) was Véronique Vincent, their landmark song is Histoire à suivre/Wait and See, released in 1983.
True to style and to great effect, Véronique Vincent sings Histoire à suivre/Wait and See partially in English and partially in French. Chillingly and irresistingly Véronique informs us that "there is a hole in my body where my heart should be", before breaking into a breathy chorus in French. Rarely did the juxtaposition of languages (and everything that comes with language) work quite so well. Histoire à suivre is all you want from a song: the perfect unity of music, atmosphere, subject matter and a Fille Sourire vocal delivery. If people would listen more often to Histoire à suivre the world would be a better place. Then again, with ‘if’, you could put Paris inside a bouteille…

Honeymoon Killers - Histoire á suivre/Wait and See (megaupload)

Patricia

Looking for more information about a French singer called Patricia is needle-haystack-situation. So far, only this little was know about the darkhaired girl whose claim to fame was a great 1967 French version of Nights in White Satin (oooh, that bass). Then Yves mailed me the url of his Patricia-appreciation page. He found out her last name (Paulin), and that she might have written songs under the pseudonym Bagheera. Plus, that she might've called herself Jenny Neska in the 70s. Intriguing. Her beautiful, moody voice is still a treat, especially on the slow, enchanting Quand on est malheureux. If you have any information about this woman (or more songs by her), please contact your local policestation please share! Yves mailed me a great crackling vinyl-rip from the Patricia-classic Vous ne saviez pas m'aime.

Patricia - Mes Reves de Satin (Megaupload)
Patricia - Tous Les Jours Qui Passent (Megaupload)
Patricia - Quand on est malheureux (Megaupload)
Patricia - Vous ne saviez pas m'aime (Megaupload)

Marie

Onna Belgian tip here this week: first Jo Lemaire, then Zoé, and now Marie Warnant. This fuzzyhaired, blue-eyed belle is 26 years old, played in some bands before encountering a solo career. Her first album De Un a Dix was released last year, and won her a few awards (Femme de Cristal 2005, for instance - no idea what that means or what it represents, but it sure sounds great). Her album features well-crafted rocksongs and tender ballades. One of them is a great ode to her hometown Bruxelles. More on MySpace.


Marie Warnant - Bruxelles (sendmefile) (megaupload)
Marie Warnant - La Vie est Belle (megaupload)

Podcast

I made a podcast for Dutch magazine Nieuwe Revu, featuring ten of the finest Filles Sourires. Check here for the tracklist (notes are in Dutch, yes). Or rightclick/saveas from here.

Annika

Wearing a skyblue dress, and carressing a white swan on a examining table, Annika Line Trost looks like a cross between Twin Peaks characters Audrey Horne and The Log Lady. Annika, who suffered her first bout of lovesickness at the age of two when she saw Kralle Krawinkel, guitarist with the German cult band Trio, on TV, toured with Digital Hardcore-band Shizuo, and is still part of duo Cobra Killer. If you know those bands, you might think that Annika solo would be as loud and in-your-face, but on second album Trust Me the listener enters "a world where a sense of belonging can never be more than a passing moment, the colour of innocence is dark blue, and elegance has been defined by Brian Ferry for all time. Similar to the fleeting images of a David Lynch movie, accompanied by the manic despair of Francoise Hardy, Trosts songs develop a definitely light-footed, yet irresistible lure." Intriguing, eh? Annika sings in German, English and French, and makes weird videos as well.

Trost - Guy le Superhero (sendmefile) (megaupload)
Trost - Sans ta Scie (sendspace)

Zoé

Blonde et Belge, electrique et eclectique: Zoé. Her album Tout va bien will be released in a week or so, and it's is a pink box-o-chocolats. Varied, from tango to rock, pop-infused and triphop-inspired. Zoé studied at Bruxelles conservatory, played at various festivals and was part of a spectacle produced by the company of director Luc Besson - who signed her as the first artist on his record label. She worked with some great musicians, and duetted with gravel-voiced Belgian hero Arno. Her songs are mostly about what relations can do to people - so no trouble relating there.

(PS: my interview with Charlotte Gainsbourg was published today. If you can read Dutch, go here)

Zoé - Je Porte Un Toast (sendspace)
Zoé & Arno - Amant Comptant (sendspace)