Chocolat Chaud

Blimey! The Tindersticks have gone synth!

Anyone who came across our sister night Tonight We Fly will know that we have a great fondness for Tindersticks and their stock in late-night-music-to-drink-red-wine-in-dingy-bars-whilst-dressed-in-a-shabby-suit to.

They have occasionally put out music that has crept into the L'Amour Electronique remit - the odd French language version and a number of film soundtracks for French film director Claire Denis (Nénette et Boni is a particular favourite at L'A-E HQ).

So it is pleasing to report that they have just put up a teaser for their latest soundtrack (For Denis' Les Salauds, or Bastards to you non-Francophones).

The big surprise, as alluded to before, is that it is purely electronic and sounds like a slurred and seedy Giorgio Moroder tragi-disco comedown. It gets stranger: it is a cover of a Hot Chocolate song. Only Stuart Staples and co. could get away with this...

You can download a shorter edit of the full song for free from the Tindersticks website.

And some helpful wag has already posted it on soundcloud



The film is screening in French cinemas now (hopefully a UK release soon?), and the soundtrack album is due on 16th September (LP & CD from the Tindersticks shop), and is already available on iTunes.

Breathless (again)

I caught a bit of Jazz at the Movies on Radio 2 last night.

Jean-Luc Godard fans should listen just for the clips of Jazz composer Martial Solal talking about his soundtrack for À Bout De Souffle: working with Godard, his choice of character themes (strings for Seberg, brass for Belmondo), and the end result - as young Jazz-chap host Jamie Cullum notes the film action is almost cut to the "crazy, jagged be-bop" music.

Jazz at the Movies is on the iPlayer until 21.59 on Monday 6th May >> LISTEN HERE

Bonjour Tristesse

Sam requested something darker and more melancholy, which goes completely against my current mood, but I do always try to oblige reader's requests (within reason!).

This is a dark and epic François de Roubaix instrumental from the 1968 Robert Enrico film Tante Zita. A film with death as its central theme - ah French films, never afraid to tackle the BIG themes!

I used to play this quite a lot at our sister night Tonight We Fly. It is so terribly melancholy, but in a beautifully fragile and uplifting way.

François de Roubaix - Tante Zita: Loin (version instrumentale)
[you can buy this re-issued on the monumental Disques Motors 3-disc boxset]


I have to say, based on all I've read about the film, I wasn't expecting the trailer to be quite so upbeat...

RIP Chris Marker

We were sad to hear news that Chris Marker has died at the age of 91.

Born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve, Marker apparently took his professional name from the Magic Marker pen. His 1962 "essay film" La Jetée, is perhaps his most famous work: a 29 minute short made up of mostly still images depicting a near-future dytsopian love story seen through the eyes of a time traveller; the film was hugely influential and became the blueprint for Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys.

La Jetée is a favourite here at L'Amour Electronique HQ, and we showed it many times on our little TV back in the Penthouse days.



If you enjoyed that, another of our favourite Marker films is Sans Soleil, which is shot mainly in Japan, and features an EMS synthesiser which translates sound into visual imagery. You can watch that here.