Nov 11, 2018

Sundaze 1845


Hello, 


Today's Artist with his whimsical, melancholy music, has become a sought-after composer, not only for his soundtrack work, but in his own right. Borrowing from French folk music, chanson, musette waltz, and street music, as well as rock, avant-garde, and classical and minimalist influences, his deceptively simple style has been likened to Chopin, Erik Satie, Philip Glass, and Michael Nyman. His music involves a large variety of instruments; primarily the guitar, piano, synthesizer or violin together with instruments like the melodica, xylophone, toy piano, harpsichord, accordion and typewriter. The Paris-based composer became popular outside his native country for his score to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie, but like most seemingly overnight successes, he had been working for years before the film's success brought him international acclaim......N'Joy

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Tiersen was born in Brest in the Finistère département in Brittany in northwestern France, in 1970, into a French family of Belgian and Norwegian origins. He started learning piano at the age of four, violin at the age of six, and received classical training at several musical academies, including those in Rennes, Nantes, and Boulogne. In the early 1980s when he was a teenager, he was influenced by the punk subculture, and bands like The Stooges and Joy Division. In 1983, at the age of 13, he broke his violin, bought an electric guitar, and formed a rock band. Tiersen was then living in Rennes, home to the three-day music festival Rencontres Trans Musicales, held annually in December, which gave him the opportunity to see acts like Nirvana, Einstürzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Cramps, Television, and Suicide. A few years later, when his band broke up, Tiersen bought a cheap mixing desk, an 8-track reel-to-reel tape recorder, and started recording music solo with a synthesizer, a sampler, and a drum machine.

Before releasing film scores under his own name, Tiersen recorded background music for a number of plays and short films. In the summer of 1993, Tiersen stayed in his apartment, recording music alone with an electric guitar, a violin, and an accordion, guided by his vision of “a musical anarchy”. By the end of that summer, Tiersen had recorded over forty tracks, which would form most of his first two albums. Tiersen's debut album, La Valse des monstres, limited to 1,000 copies only, was released in June 1995 by independent record label Sine Terra Firma, and then it was reissued by Nancy-based record label Ici d'ailleurs in 1998 as the second album of its catalogue. The 17-track album was inspired by and written for the theatrical adaptations of Tod Browning's 1932 cult classic Freaks, and Yukio Mishima's 1955 version of Noh play The Damask Drum. One year later, in April 1996, he released Rue des cascades, a collection of short pieces recorded with toy piano, harpsichord, violin, accordion, and mandolin. The title track, sung by French soloist singer Claire Pichet, was used the following year for the Palme d'Or nominated French drama film The Dreamlife of Angels, and several tracks received greater exposure five years later when they were featured on the soundtrack to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie. Tiersen played almost all the instruments both in the studio and in concert, and this gave him a theatrical appeal as a one-man show, which allowed him to perform, among others, at the 1996 edition of the Avignon Festival, the oldest extant festival in France and one of the world's greatest.

Tiersen rose to domestic fame upon the release of his third studio album, Le Phare (English: The Light House) in 1998. The album was recorded in self-imposed seclusion on the isle of Ushant (Breton: Enez Eusa, French: Ouessant) at the south-western end of the English Channel which marks the north-westernmost point of territorial France, where Tiersen spent two months living in a rented house. At night, he watched the Phare du Creach, one of the most powerful lighthouses in the world, and was fascinated by the stunning scenery repeated every night. Le Phare, which featured Claire Pichet, French singer and songwriter Dominique A, and French drummer and percussionist Sacha Toorop, sold over 160,000 copies, confirming Tiersen's status as one of the most innovative artists of his generation and commencing a run of successful albums. Three songs from this album, "La Dispute", "La Noyee", and "Sur le fil" were used later for the soundtrack of Amélie, while "L'Homme aux bras ballants", written and composed by Dominique A, was also the soundtrack to Laurent Gorgiard's 1997 short animation film of the same title. Its single, "Monochrome", sung by Dominique A, was a radio hit and propelled the album. Le Phare was his first album to chart climbing to number 50 in the French Albums Chart.

In that period Tiersen provided a new arrangement and played strings, vibraphone, bell, mandolin, electric guitar, and bass guitar for the song "À ton étoile" by French rock band Noir Désir on their 1998 remix album One Trip/One Noise,[citation needed] recorded background music for the award-winning and multi-nominated film The Dreamlife of Angels,[for André Téchiné's Alice et Martin, released in 1998, and Christine Carrière's Qui plume la lune?, released in 1999, and also recorded Bästard ~ Yann Tiersen, a 3-track extended play released in 1998 in collaboration with French electronic rock band Bästard, and his first live album, Black Session: Yann Tiersen. The live album was recorded on 2 December 1998 as the opening act of the Rencontres Trans Musicales in the Salle Serreau at the Théâtre National de Bretagne in Rennes, for the C'est Lenoir show broadcast on the French public radio station France Inter. The album, which features Northern Irish singer, songwriter, and frontman of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy Neil Hannon, singer and songwriter Bertrand Cantat of Noir Désir, singer and illustrator Françoiz Breut, anglophone French rock band The Married Monk (Christian Quermalet, Philippe Lebruman, Etienne Jaumet, Nicolas Courret), French folk rock group Têtes Raides (Christian Olivier, Grègoire Simon, Pascal Olivier, Anne-Gaëlle Bisquay, Serge Bégout, Jean-Luc Millot, and Edith Bégou), the string quartet Quatuor à cordes, guitarist and composer Olivier Mellano, and author Mathieu Boogaerts, as well as his usual collaborators and friends, Claire Pichet and Dominique A, was recorded by France International, mastered by Radio France, and released in cd format one year later on 2 November 1999.

In 1999, Tiersen with The Married Monk, Claire Pichet, and Olivier Mellano, released his first collaboration album, Tout est calme. The 26 minutes, 10 tracks mini album peaked at number 45 on the French Albums Chart. The album produced one single, "Les Grandes marées", and Tiersen also featured on The Divine Comedy's single "Gin Soaked Boy" released on that same year, on three tracks for Françoiz Breut's second studio album Vingt à Trente Mille Jours, and on Têtes Raides' Gratte-poil, both released in 2000.

Tiersen remained relatively unknown outside France until the release of his score for the acclaimed film Amélie (English: The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain) in 2001. French film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet had something else in mind for the film score, but one day one of his production assistants put on a CD of Tiersen, and the director found it absolutely superb. Jeunet bought all of Tiersen's albums, and then contacted him to see if the Breton composer was interested in writing the film score for Amélie. In two weeks, Tiersen composed nineteen pieces for the film and also allowed the production to take anything they wanted from his other records. Amélie received great critical acclaim and was a box-office success. The film went on to win the Best Film award at the European Film Awards, four César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, two BAFTA Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated for five Academy Awards. The soundtrack was a mixture of both new and previously released material, and Tiersen was also the recipient of the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film, and of the World Soundtrack Academy award. The soundtrack album charted in many countries, including the number one position on the French Albums Chart.

While he was writing the film score for Amélie Tiersen was also preparing his fifth studio album L'Absente. The album was characterized by several contributions including 35-member Ensemble Orchestral Synaxis conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne, viola player Bertrand Lambert, violinists Yann Bisquay and Sophie Naboulay, Natacha Régnier, and saxophonist Grégoire Simon, and long-time collaborators Dominique A, Christine Ott, Lisa Germano, Neil Hannon, Têtes Raides, Christian Quermalet, Marc Sens, and Sacha Toorop. The album, which was released on 5 June 2001 through EMI France, was preceded by two promotional singles for "A quai" and "Bagatelle" respectively. Tiersen provided strings and vibraphone to two tracks, "Roma Amor" and "Holidays", featured on R/O/C/K/Y, third studio album by The Married Monk.

At this time he was married to Belgian actress Natacha Régnier, co-star of The Dreamlife of Angels. Régnier became a singer and Tiersen wrote three songs for her including his arrangement of Georges Brassens' "Le Parapluie", a song featured on the tribute album Les Oiseaux de passage, released in 2001. That same year they went on tour in France and abroad. They have a daughter, Lise, born in 2002, but they have since been divorced. In this period, Tiersen also took his music out around the world, playing shows with a full orchestra and an amplified string quartet. From 15 to 17 February 2002, Tiersen with many of the collaborators who participated in the recording sessions for L'Absente plus Claire Pichet, violinists Nicolas Stevens and Renaud Lhoest, bassist Jean-François Assy, viola player Olivier Tilkin, and uilleann pipes, bagpipes, and low whistle player Ronan Le Bars, performed live at the Cité de la Musique (English: City of Music) in Paris. Part of these three concerts went on to form Tiersen's second live album C'était ici (It Was Here), which was released through EMI France on 30 September 2002.

Tiersen's skills as a composer of film scores were much in demand, and the soundtrack for Amélie was soon followed by the film score for Good Bye, Lenin!, a 2003 German tragicomedy film directed by Wolfgang Becker The film was both a commercial and a critical success and won several awards including the César Award for Best Film from the European Union, Best Film at the European Film Awards, the German Film Awards for Outstanding Film, Best European Film at the Goya Awards, Best Foreign Language Film for the London Film Critics' Circle, and it was also listed in the Empire magazine 2010's list of "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" Tiersen was the recipient of the German Film Awards for Outstanding Music. On 15 November 2003, Tiersen with Stuart A. Staples, the lead singer of indie band Tindersticks, actress and singer Jane Birkin, singer and vocalist for Cocteau Twins Elizabeth Fraser, singer and songwriter Christophe Miossec, and Dominique A released 3 titres inédits au profit de la FIDH (3 New Tracks for the Benefit of FIDH), a 3-track CD that was part of the On Aime, On Aide benefit collection for raising funds for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

Tiersen's list of collaborators continues to grow album after album and in October 2004 released Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright, a collaboration album with American singer-songwriter Shannon Wright, and, in the same year, he is featured on The Divine Comedy's album Absent Friends. In 2005, Tiersen released his fifth studio album Les Retrouvailles. The album features several collaborators including the Orchestre National de Paris, singers Elizabeth Fraser, Jane Birkin, Stuart A. Staples, Dominique A, and Miossec, strings players Jean-François Assy, Frederic Dessus, Guillaume Fontanarosa, Bertrand Causse, Anne Causse Biragnet, Armelle Legoff, Frédéric Haffner, flute player Elliott, drummer Ludovic Morillon, and ondes Martenot player Christine Ott Les Retrouvailles also includes a DVD short film entitled La Traversée, directed by Aurélie du Boys, which documents the making of the album in Ushant, and incorporates an animated video for the non-album track, "Le Train", and also live versions of a handful of songs. The album produced a single, "Kala", sung by Elizabeth Fraser, and Tiersen also played piano on Staples' solo debut album, Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04. The subsequent world tour of 2006 replaced the multi-instrumental ensemble with electric guitars and an ondes Martenot, and produced his third live album, On Tour, which was released together with a DVD, directed by Aurélie du Boys, about the tour, in November 2006. In 2006, he also released two singles, "La Mancha" and "La Rade", and he was featured on The Endless Rise of the Sun, third studio album by electronic group Smooth, Raides à la ville extended play by Katel, and 13m² by David Delabrosse.

The year 2008 saw his return after a five years absence as a composer of film scores when he provided the background music for Tabarly, a Pierre Marcel's documentary film about the French sailor, two-time champion of the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, and father of French yachting Éric Tabarly. The documentary was released on June 2008, exactly ten years after Tabarly's death. Éric Tabarly was lost on the night of 12–13 June 1998 at Irish Sea when he was struck by a gaff of his Pen Duick during heavy swell and knocked overboard from his yacht near Wales while on his way to the Fife Regatta in Scotland. His body was recovered five weeks later off the coast of Ireland by a French fishing trawler. The documentary, narrated by Tabarly himself, traces his sporting career until his last meal in Ushant. Before the end of the decade, Tiersen also contributed to Christine Ott's debut solo album Solitude Nomade, and to Miossec's seventh studio album Finistériens.

October 2010 saw the release of Tiersen’s sixth studio album titled Dust Lane. The album was two years in the making and was largely recorded in Ushant, France. Further parts were recorded in the Philippines. The album is preoccupied with mortality; during the recording sessions Tiersen lost his mother and a close friend. The recordings started out as simple song based tracks with Tiersen playing acoustic guitar, mandolin and bouzouki. New layers were added to the recordings creating a more complex sound. Then an array of vintage synthesisers and electric guitars were added to create further textures. The album was released by Mute Records in Europe and Anti Records in the US. The record was promoted in a tour beginning in October 2010, starting in New York City. Dust Lane was preceded by the release of the vinyl EP Palestine and by the single for "Ashes". In 2010, Tiersen also contributed to the tribute album to cross-genre, experimental music group Coil The Dark Age of Love by This Immortal Coil, a one-off tribute formation, and to Li(f)e, the fourth solo studio album by hip-hop artist Sage Francis.

October 2011 saw the European release of his seventh studio album, Skyline. The nine-track album, a follow on from his Dust Lane, was once again recorded at Tiersen's home on the island of Ushant in the south-western end of the English Channel, with further parts recorded in Paris, San Francisco, Berlin, and Nashville. It was subsequently mixed by producer Ken Thomas in Leeds, and mastered by Ray Staff in London. The album produced the singles for "Monuments" and "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow". On 18 February 2012, Tiersen with Lionel Laquerriere, and Thomas Poli, presented his side project, Elektronische Staubband, at La Route du Rock music festival in Saint-Malo. It was about an hour of krautrock, electronic, and experimental music involving a dozen of synthesizers and analog keyboards with the first three pieces of the set list taken from Dust Lane and the remaining five from Skyline. Tiersen was also chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival on March 2012 in Minehead, England. Skyline was released in North America via ANTI- Records on 17 April 2012, and it was followed by the Skyline Tour with dates in the United States, Canada, Iceland, Spain, Portugal, France, Slovak Republic, Austria, Finland, and the United Kingdom.

On 3 August 2016, Yann Tiersen got married to Emilie Quinquis (Tiny Feet) in the island of Ouessant, Brittany. the bride statet they got married at 31 July 2016. Since April 6th, 2017 they have a son and are awaiting a daughter....

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Tiersens fourth film soundtrack (others include Amelie and Goodbye Lenin) provides the background for a documentary about a former French Army officer who was considered the father of French yachting and lost his life when he was struck by a gaff during a heavy swell and knocked overboard. Tiersen employs his typical grab bag of unusual instruments to create yet another musical masterpiece, it is sublime, visceral, and art. His talent is scary, when listening to this record one is swept away into another world, a more beautiful world, a sad world, a truimphed world, ultimately a different world...the world in the mind of yann as he seems to effortlessly transcend all boundries and take us for a gorgeous ride in his mind.




01 Tabarly 3:05
02 Naval 3:38
03 .II 1:14
04 Au-Dessous Du Volcan 3:33
05 .IV 0:55
06 La Longue Route 2:14
07 1976 1:12
08 Yellow 2:19
09 Point Zéro 2:38
10 La Corde 1:18
11 8 MM 2:45
12 Point Mort 3:37
13 Dernière 1:32
14 Atlantique Nord 2:38
15 Eire 1:07

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On Skyline, Yann Tiersen goes further down the path he forged on Dust Lane, moving away from the delicate, keyboard-driven reveries that marked early work such as the tracks collected for the Amélie score or the music for Good Bye Lenin! and toward a post-rock-tinged sound that, despite its differences, is just as widescreen-ready. While the galloping rhythms and swift melody of "Forgive Me" are most like the works that won Tiersen a legion of film buff fans, most of Skyline evokes comparisons to other artists. The bursts of instant-gratification guitars on "Another Shore" could come just as easily from Smashing Pumpkins' "Today" or from Mogwai, while twinkly, bittersweet tunes like "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow" and "The Trial" call to mind Múm or Morr Music acts such as Borko; still elsewhere, the lush romanticism of "The Gutter"'s dream pop recalls Saturdays=Youth-era M83 and the odd mix of screaming, toy piano, and glockenspiel on "Exit 25 Block 20" seems like something Fuck Buttons would attempt. While Tiersen tries on different approaches for size on each of Skyline's songs, his nimble melodic sense and unfailing skill at evoking the right mood at the right time are unmistakable. Skyline isn't as obviously dark as Dust Lane was, but melancholy pervades the entire album, welling to the surface on "Hesitation Wound," where Tiersen's frail voice drifts farther and farther away from the listener and into a galaxy of strafing synths. While this album and Dust Lane sacrifice some of his recognizable sound, the possibilities laid open for Tiersen are too intriguing not to pursue. 




01 Another Shore 4:54
02 I'm Gonna Live Anyhow 3:48
03 Monuments 3:53
04 The Gutter 4:03
05 Exit 25 Block 20 3:28
06 Hesitation Wound 4:11
07 Forgive Me 5:56
08 The Trial 5:53
09 Vanishing Point 4:09


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Even if he hadn't created some of the most vivid film music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Yann Tiersen's music would probably be called "filmic." In both his scores and stand-alone albums, the artful way he blends his flair for atmosphere with memorable melodies and instrumentation lends itself to vivid storytelling, something he explores beautifully on his eighth album ∞ (Infinity). Largely recorded in Iceland and inspired by that country as well as the Faroe Islands, much of the album evokes Nordic post-rock while reflecting Tiersen's distinctive touch. "Slippery Stones" and "In Our Minds" echo Múm's ability to sound anthemic, childlike, and dark at the same time. The brassy "Grønjørð" features Tiersen's bandmate Ólavur Jákupsson singing the praises of the Faroe Islands' verdant and volcanic landscape in his native Faroese. "A Midsummer Evening" harnesses Tiersen's fondness for toy instruments into widescreen orchestral psych-rock that captures the surreal joyousness of a long dusk and balmy night. All of this makes ∞ (Infinity) a more cohesive set than its predecessor Skyline. Tiersen expertly uses the album's united motifs and instrumentation to contrast its expansive sounds, such as the title track's sweeping drones, and intimate lyrics like "The Crossing"'s "just hold my hand." Stories are woven through the songs in unexpected ways: "Steinn" and "Ar Maen Bihan" tell the same hypnotic tale of nature and circularity in Icelandic and Tiersen's native Breton, respectively. However, he saves ∞ (Infinity)'s most impressive storytelling for last: "Meteorites," a collaboration with Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat, explores love's intimacy and vastness, moving from merging cells to soaring through the universe. Moffat's burr brings a frankness to lyrics like "this is our rom-com" and gives voice to all the heartbroken, searching, and joyous moods dancing through Tiersen's music over the years. A movie unto itself, "Meteorites" might wink at Tiersen's status as a composer for film, but it's too exquisite to be a joke; it elevates what was already a strong collection into some of his best work. Given its all-encompassing title, it's fitting that ∞ (Infinity) is one of Tiersen's most ambitious albums, but its grand scale only magnifies his music's heartfelt beauty. 




01 ∞ 2:58
02 Slippery Stones 4:18
03 A Midsummer Evening 4:13
04 Ar Maen Bihan 6:53
05 Lights 3:41
06 Grønjørð 5:24
07 Steinn 4:14
08 In Our Minds 5:12
09 The Crossing 5:43
10 Meteorites 6:49


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After the far-flung travels of ∞(Infinity) took him to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, Yann Tiersen returns home figuratively and literally with Eusa. Named for the Breton term for the island off the coast of Brittany where he lives, this is a back-to-basics project for Tiersen -- as basic as his work can be, that is. Conceived as a musical map of his home, Eusa began as a series of field recordings and piano compositions taken from and inspired by different locations on the island that were later issued as an album and a book of sheet music. Theoretically, one could re-create Eusa by playing the field recordings and performing the compositions, but of course Tiersen (who recorded the album at London's Abbey Road studios) brings much more to the album. As a whole, it lacks the anthemic winsomeness of the music that catapulted him to fame, but the album's simplicity lets his masterful melodies and playing shine. Tiersen holds Eusa together with a series of pieces named "Hent," which means "path" in Breton. These teasing interludes do feel like stops along the journey, from the delicate beginnings of "Hent I" to the serene sense of arrival on "Hent VIII." In between, Tiersen distills moments as well as places: "Hent III"'s somber melody, lapping waves, and bird calls conjure an overcast shoreline. The rest of Eusa flits between soothing and urgent just as nimbly. The rippling, full-bodied waltz "Pern" is quintessential Tiersen, boasting a gorgeous melody rivaled only by the sweetly nostalgic "Roc'h ar Vugale" and "Penn ar Lann," which is set aloft at the end by chirping birds and ascending chords. On "Porz Goret," "Enez Nein," and "Penn ar Roc'h," he imbues the album's longing with more insistency, but the results are just as affecting. Though he hadn't intended to record these compositions, it's a good thing that he did -- Eusa is like being invited into Tiersen's home to hear him play. Comforting but never dull, it's a reminder that the familiar can be just as inspiring as the foreign. 



Yann Tiersen - Eusa (flac  267mb)

01 Hent I 2:56
02 Pern 4:26
03 Hent II 1:15
04 Porz Goret 4:56
05 Lok Gweltz 3:49
06 Hent III 0:53
07 Penn Ar Roc'h 3:03
08 Hent IV 3:22
09 Kereon 2:45
10 Hent V 1:07
11 Yuzin 3:04
12 Roc'h Ar Vugale 6:15
13 Hent VI 0:42
14 Penn Ar Lann 3:57
15 Hent VII 1:44
16 Enez Nein 5:05
17 Kadoran 1:18
18 Hent VIII 6:30

Yann Tiersen - Eusa  (ogg 123mb)

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