''L'Absente'' is the fourth studio album by French composer and musician

Yann Tiersen Yann Tiersen (born 23 June 1970) is a French Breton musician and composer. His musical career is split between studio recordings, music collaborations and film soundtracks songwriting. His music incorporates a large variety of classical and c ...

. When French

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

Jean-Pierre Jeunet Jean-Pierre Jeunet (; born 3 September 1953) is a French film director, producer and screenwriter. His films combine fantasy, realism and science fiction to create idealized realities or to give relevance to mundane situations. Debuting as a di ...

asked Tiersen if he was interested in writing the

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

for ''

Amélie ''Amélie'' (also known as ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''; ; en, The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain, italic=yes) is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume L ...

'', Tiersen was already working on ''L'Absente''. The album was released on 5 June 2001 through EMI France, and was preceded by two promotional singles for "À quai" and "Bagatelle". ''L'Absente'' is an album of great variety with Tiersen playing many instruments including an old-fashioned typewriter and a pot, and it is characterized by several guests contributions provided by the 35-member Ensemble Orchestral Synaxis conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne, French folk rock group

Têtes Raides Têtes Raides is a French folk rock group. Group history The group was founded in Paris during the 1980s. Originally, they played music heavily influenced by the punk movement and depended on electric instruments. Their third album featured An ...

, singers

Dominique A Dominique Ané (born 6 October 1968), better known as "Dominique A", is a French songwriter and singer. Early life Born on 6 October 1968 in Provins, France, Dominique Ané is the only child of a teacher and a homemaker. He was passionate about ...

Lisa Germano Lisa Ruth Germano (born June 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Indiana. Her album '' Geek the Girl'' (1994) was chosen as a top album of the 1990s by ''Spin'' magazine. She began her career as a violinist ...

Neil Hannon Edward Neil Anthony Hannon (born 7 November 1970) is a Northern Irish singer and songwriter. He is the creator and front man of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy, and is the band's sole constant member. Hannon wrote the theme tunes for t ...

, and Belgian actress

Natacha Régnier Nathalie "Natacha" Régnier (born 11 April 1974) is a Belgian actress. She received a Cannes Film Festival Award, a European Film Award, and a César Award for her role in the 1998 film ''The Dreamlife of Angels''. Régnier is the first Belgia ...

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player o ...

player

Christine Ott Christine Ott (born 10 August 1963) is a French pianist, vocalist, ondist,

, Christian Quermalet, guitarist Marc Sens, viola player Bertrand Lambert, violinists Yann Bisquay and Sophie Naboulay, saxophonist Grégoire Simon, and drummer Sacha Toorop. ''L'Absente'' peaked at number 41 on the

French Albums Chart French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

Reception

Track listing

All music and lyrics are written by

, except as noted. # "À quai" - 4:22 # "La Parade" - 3:18 - (Sung by

) # "Bagatelle" (

/Tiersen) - 4:40 - (Sung by Dominique A) # "L'Absente" - 3:18 # "Le Jour d'avant" (

/Tiersen) - 5:07 # "Les Jours tristes" (

/Tiersen) - 3:20 - (Sung by Neil Hannon) # "L'Échec" - 2:50 - (Sung by

and Yann Tiersen) # "La Lettre d'explication" (Têtes Raides/Tiersen) - 2:30 # "Qu'en reste-t-il?" - 3:40 # "Le Méridien" - 4:16 - (Sung by Lisa Germano) # "Le Concert" (Tiersen/Christian Quermalet/Marc Sens/Anne-Gaëlle Bisquay/Gregoire Simon) - 2:49 - (Sung by Natacha Régnier and Yann Tiersen) # "Le Retour" - 5:22 The

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

edition contains an additional track, "L'Autre lettre", written and recorded by Yann Tiersen and Les Têtes Raides. A 2×CD limited edition of the album was released through

Virgin France Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

in 2001. The second CD contains live versions of the following pieces: # "La Valse d'Amelie" # "Deja Loin" # "Monochrome" # "Bagatelle" # "La Parade" # "Le Jour d'avant"

Credits

– vibraphone, mandolin, accordion, banjo, chime, harpsichord, toy piano, guitar, piano, bass, bells, vocals, Bontempi, typewriter, pot, Elliot's car and music box, viola, tom, cello *

Christine Ott Christine Ott (born 10 August 1963) is a French pianist, vocalist, ondist,

on "À quai", "La Parade", "Bagatelle", "Les Jours tristes", "L'Échec", and "Le Méridien" *Ensemble Orchestral Synaxis are featured on "À quai", "La Parade", "Bagatelle", and "Le Méridien" *

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

on "La Parade" and "Le Méridien" *Anne-Gaëlle Bisquay -

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

on "La Parade", "L'Échec", and "Le Concert" *Bertrand Lambert -

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

on "La Parade" and "L'Échec" *Yann Bisquay -

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

on "La Parade" and "L'Échec" *

- vocals on "L'Échec" and "Le Concert" *

- vocals on "Bagatelle", guitar on "Le Méridien" *Christian Quermalet -

Rhodes piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

on "Bagatelle",

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s on "Les Jours tristes", and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

on "Le Concert" *

are featured on "Le Jour d'avant" and "La Lettre d'explication" *

- vocals on "Les Jours tristes" *Marc Sens - guitar on "Le Concert" *Sophie Naboulay - violin on "La Parade" and "L'Échec" *Sacha Toorop - drums on "Bagatelle" and "Le Méridien" *Grégoire Simon -

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

on "Le Concert" *Mixed by

Ian Caple Ian Caple is an English recording engineer, record producer, programmer and mixer. History Caple's career began at EMI Music in 1979. After training at Abbey Road Studios, he became an engineer at EMI's KPM studios in Denmark Street London. He ...

Charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Absente 2001 classical albums Yann Tiersen albums