Yann Tiersen
Le Phare

Yann Tiersen, an artist known to many for the soundtrack of The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain, Goodbye Lenin, and the latest wonderful "Le Retrouvaillant".
This album belongs to the early days of the Breton musician... a marvel of infinite sweetness.

Music that is powerfully cinematic and at the same time attic-like, to be listened to under a heavy winter plaid... bare rocks on the horizon and a strong coffee in hand.
The lightness of "La Dispute" rivals excellently with his more recent compositions: a piano sketches a melody and everything grows, immeasurably in emotion; the sound of a fishing rod's reel is heard... someone was lucky today, or perhaps not.
The small accordions take us to the village; above us are the crows and not a shadow of sun passes from the white expanse of clouds... but the wheels speed up, the women start to sing, they hang out the laundry that perhaps won't dry, and the sea is always just a little more than twenty steps away.
In the evening, the fire is lit in the small square. There is always the usual group of old men playing bocce, and "La Crise" begins to play its chase of strings and bells, xylophones, and village accordions. The joy is suddenly interrupted, a soft female song and a violin dares a Celtic melody... everyone joins in: flutes, accordions, guitars, and the ceremony of "Le Fromveur" turns into the distant echo of a ship's siren.
Back to the attic: "La Chute", an intimate and serene discourse like sleep.

To conceive this music, emotional and alive, poetic and lively, one really needs to be born in Brittany: the land where clouds race swiftly, never interpretable by the signs of the land, and where the sea is not inviting and warm but cold and austere like iron.