Breton Musician, Yann Tiersen might be most well known for his music from the soundtrack of one of the most successful French films of all time, Amélie. The film features songs that he had already written on his three previous albums with only additional pieces written for the film, adapted from the album that he was working on at the time, L’absente. Consequently he has been associated as someone who composes soundtrack music and is often approached to do just that. This is not to say that he doesn’t write songs and music that have soundtrack qualities but he seems to have stumbled into soundtracks more by luck than choice. His moody soundscapes and rhythms certainly create an atmosphere and amidst the instrumental passages he has vocals in Faroese, his native Breton, English and Icelandic. He might be a modern French Mike Oldfield meets Terry Riley or is it Tangerine Dream (or perhaps it’s just the sequencers) with a distant Celtic ancestry via his own unique take on electronics and organic instruments compiled into his own special vision.
This album is a fascinating journey from eerie darkness through incessant rhythms, communal vocals and spoken word poetry (featuring Aidan Moffat from Scottish band Arab Strap) and mysterious Icelandic yarns that has one hand by the heat of the open fire and another trailing in the freezing Breton sea.
Wikipedia links in French:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yann_Tiersen
Wikipedia links in English:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yann_Tiersen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?_(Yann_Tiersen_album)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amélie_(soundtrack)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushant
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