VERY VERY BAD THINGS

Owing to huge popularity - nearly 230 downloads to date (Ahem, would be nice if some of those people would be good enough to leave a comment to say thank you...) - and by request of Monsieur Guuzbourg I've finally had time to post this other Ewa Swann track.

If you missed Le Couer Fou, a lilting, yet twisted piece of J-C Vannier lolita-pop, you can get it here.

Now, if Le Couer Fou is a chanson to wild, tragic love, I imagine this - the A-side - could only be the soundtrack to VERY VERY BAD THINGS happening

Take a listen for yourself, and don't have nightmares...

Ewa Swann - Pour Quelques Secondes

[There are no re-issues of this to my knowledge, but as stated previously, the vinyl 45 is currently going for a fairly handsome sum on cdandlp.com]

Le Coeur Fou

This was a new discovery, and something of an uncharted gem, if you ask me.  Italian-born softcore actress Ewa Swann gives an achingly breathy vocal performance on this, her only record,  released in 1970: from the soundtrack to the Jean-Gabriel Albicocco film in which she stars as Clo the "psychotic pyromaniac".

Judging from this synopsis, the film is a typically French affair, dealing with adultery, madness and doomed love...

"A struggling, middle aged entertainment journalist falls for a 20 year old psychotic pyromaniac. He meets the young woman when he goes to interview his ex-wife, a prominent actress in a mental institution. After the interview, the young woman sets fire to the institution after she overhears the conversation. Escaping to the woods, the reporter finds her and falls in love. The two decide to live in the forest in a lean-to, and they start their affair of burning passion while she continues her passionate burning. Soon the police arrive to take the disturbed woman away. The incident leaves the man on the verge of suicide out of loss and longing for his new love."

Now take a look at the back cover, and you see the immortal tag line "direction musical et arrangements: Jean-Claude Vannier" an almost certain stamp of quality.  And in this instance, I'm pleased to say that J-C does not disappoint.

Don't know about you, but, for me, it brings to mind a more twisted version of the Lullaby from Rosemary's Baby sung breathlessly by a Lolita-esque Jane Birkin/Léonie impersonator.

Ewa Swann - Le Coeur Fou

[if you would like to buy the vinyl 45 be prepared to pay a handsome sum via cdandlp.com or groovecollector]

All I want for Christmas is...

The Melody Nelson 40th Anniversary box-set

*DROOLS*

Yep, Finders Keepers have got me salivating again.  This limited edition box-set will be available from 21st November for the princely sum of seventy-five pounds and forty-seven pence, and includes:

• The original album on CD
• A CD of alternative versions of the tracks
• The original vinyl album
• A vinyl album of bonus sessions from the time of recording
• An exclusive 30-minute DVD documentary
• A large-format 52-page book in English and French, including lyrics from the album

*DROOLS AGAIN*

I shall be ordering my copy from Finders Keepers as soon as it becomes available, and you should order from them too (they need support having lost the majority of their stock in the PIAS warehouse fire in August)

Here's a little teaser for the documentary.

And we can only hope the Melody Nelson TV show will be included too!

Quietus interview Jean-Claude Vannier

Apparently he was once awarded Le Prix de l'Humour Noir (only in France would they have an award for "black humour").

Read the full interview at The Quietus.

Electro Rapide & Blood Red Roses

The wonderful Finders Keepers Records has just released 2 new Jean-Claude Vannier albums.  Yes two!

The first, Electro Rapide, is a collection of rarities and curios from the Vannier tape vaults, taken from the period before and during his time working with a certain Monsieur Gainsbourg.  It's a bizarre and brief (only 25 minutes long) mix of the epic, comic, strange, and sometimes disturbing mind of the composer-arranger.

More info and soundclips

The second, Roses Rouge Sang, is an album of brand new material recorded with the cream of the session musicians who plied their trade on the 60s scene (Vic Flick, Dougie Wright, Herbie Flowers, Pierre-Alain Dahan, Tony Bonfils, Denys Lable, and Mark Chantereau).  The fruits of this re-union could almost be a long-lost early-70s album by Gainsbourg himself - all brooding strings and taut, rhythmic funk. Whilst Vannier's vocal-style recalls Serge's earlier hesitant chansonnier style.

More info and soundclips


A version of the following song appears on Electro Rapide.  You can find this "mid-tempo version" as a bonus track on Vannier's L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches (also on Finders Keepers)

Jean-Claude Vannier - Je M'Appelle Geraldine (mid-tempo version)
[buy Electro Rapide and Roses Rouges Sang on CD and mp3 direct from Finders Keepers Records - they need your support having lost most of their physical stock in the PIAS warehouse fire back in August]

covered and appropriated

Stereo Total have recorded the Brigitte Fontaine/Jean-Claude Vannier track Barbe à Papa for their latest album. For the video, they've appropriated a fictional advert directed by Serge Gainsbourg's character in the film Slogan...

Creepy Crawlies (the return of the...)

At our monthly L'Amour Electronique soiree back in July someone came and asked me if I had any Jean-Claude Vannier. "I have Histoire de Melody Nelson", I replied. But he wanted Vannier solo. He said there was this Jean-Claude Vannier solo album that was recorded around the same time as Melody Nelson, and it was even more nuts.

I did my research a few days after and found L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches, which was re-released by Finders Keepers Records in 2006. I made a mental note to get with the times and purchase a copy as soon as I had a bit of spare cash. In September I picked up it up on CD from Rough Trade, and it has made a gleeful romp of a soundtrack to my washing-up sessions ever since. At times I've been caught laughing out loud at the sheer ingenuity and craziness of it all. And I can't help recommending it to anyone and everyone who shows a passing interest in anything French or off-the-wall.

Released in 1972 under the guise of the fictional group Insolitudes, Vannier's composition and production technique throws everything AND the kitchen sink onto tape, then chops it up with razor-blades and re-arranges it: the taut Melody Nelson core-session players; Vannier himself on harpsichord, piano, flute, recorder, toy pianos, chimes and bells, klaxons, whistles and tape recorders; a powerful choir of eerie, valkyrie-like voices; and a simple string quartet, multi-tracked twohundredandfifty-fold to create his trademark lush, sweeping "1001-piece orchestra".

The story goes that Vannier dropped by chez-Serge with a test pressing of his new record, seeking the opinion of his friend and collaborator. Serge asked him to leave the copy with him for 24 hours, and put pen to paper. The result: a strange and macabre story to accompany the strange and unhinged music, L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches or The Child Fly-Killer.



The re-release has an English interpretation of the typically Gainsbourg-ian tale in the sleevenotes (hmmm, methinks some of his twisted sense of humour may have been lost in translation):
[click the linked titles for mp3s]

1. L'Enfant la Mouche et les Allumettes
The Child the Fly and the Matches: A wounded fly is in a fluster. The child gets his matches ready. He chases the fly and tries to burn it.
2. L'Enfant au Royaume des Mouches
The Child in the Fly Kingdom: The wounded animal leads the child into an underground, humid and dark place: the fly kingdom. The child crosses the stream that runs along the entrance to the forbidden caves.
3. Danse des Mouches Noires Gardes du Roi
Dance of the Black Flies, The King's Guards: As the child approaches, the king's guards take up a warrior's stance, then move aside revealing the king of the flies playing billiards**
4. Danse de L'Enfant et du Roi des Mouches [Dance of the Child and the King of the Flies]
The king of the flies invites the child to dance with him. But during the dance, the child plans an act of treachery.
5. Le Roi des Mouches et la Confiture de Rouse
The King of The Flies and the Rose Jam: The child rips the cellophane off a pot of rose jam and pours it onto the floor. The huge lake of jam slowly covers the king. The king of the flies efforts to break free only get him stuck even more, watched helplessly by the guards who slowly draw away.
6. L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches
The child Fly-Killer: The king, hindered by the jam, drags himself to the human's beach. The child joins him there, jumping around and tormenting him with a rod.
7. Les Garde Volent au Secours du Roi
The Guards fly to the King's rescue: Several troops of black flies harass the child one after the other and try to save the king, but in vain.
8. Mort du Roi des Mouches
Death of the King of the Flies: The child murderer ruthlessly pursues the king of the flies lashing out at the tall grass with his stick. The king of the flies is beaten to death.
9. Pattes de Mouches
Spidery Scrawl / Fly Legs: The fly people take counsel together and prepare their revenge.
10. Le Papier tue Enfant
The Paper Child-Killer: The whirling flies meake the child's head spin. They try to stick him onto a paper child-killer. The child tries to escape the flies punishment twice, then gets stuck onto the paper child-killer***.
11. Petite Agonie de L'Enfant Assassin
The Death Throes of the Child Murderer: The child is covered in flies.


**Serge's cunning plot device to explicate a sound collage-d game of snooker.
***Giant, child-sized sheet of stinky, sticky fly-paper


[Buy Jean-Claude Vannier from Finders Keepers Records]