''Les Retrouvailles'' is the fifth studio album by French musician

Yann Tiersen Yann Pierre 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 ...

. Released in 2005 through Ici, d'ailleurs... record label, it features a number of high-profile guest vocalists, both French and Anglophone alike:

Christophe Miossec Christophe Miossec (born 24 December 1964 in Brest, Brittany, France) is a French singer and songwriter. Beginnings Christophe Miossec was not new to the world of music when he met his first success. Between 14 and 17, he was in a teenage ban ...

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 ...

Elizabeth Fraser Elizabeth Davidson Fraser (born 29 August 1963) is a Scottish singer. She was the vocalist for the band Cocteau Twins, who achieved success in the UK from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. Their studio albums '' Victorialand'' (1986) and '' H ...

(of the

Cocteau Twins Cocteau Twins were a Scottish rock music, rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They were formed in Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth by Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass), adding Elizabeth Fraser (vocals) in 1981. In 19 ...

Jane Birkin Jane Mallory Birkin ( ; 14 December 1946 – 16 July 2023) was a British and French actress, singer, and designer. She had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema. A native of London, Birkin began her career as an actress, ...

, and

Stuart Staples Stuart Ashton Staples (born 14 November 1965) is an English musician best known as the lead singer of Indie music, indie band Tindersticks, in which he also plays guitar. Staples is noted for his crooning vocal style and a bass, nasal voice. Bi ...

(of the

Tindersticks Tindersticks are an English alternative rock band formed in Nottingham in 1991. They released six albums before singer Stuart A. Staples embarked on a solo career. The band reunited briefly in 2006 and more permanently the following year. The ...

). As is customary with his albums, Tiersen showcases his multi-instrumental skills, which on the album encompasses the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

, and

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

, among others. ''Les Retrouvailles'' also includes a DVD featuring a short film entitled ''La Traversée'', directed by Aurelie du Boys, which documents the making of the album and incorporates an animated video for the non-album track, "Le Train," and also live versions of a handful of songs.

Track listing

Music and lyrics written by

, except where noted. # "Western" - 2:23 # "Kala" (Fraser, Tiersen) - 4:09 (Sung by

) # "Loin des villes" - 3:19 # "La Veillée" - 3:11 # "Plus d'hiver" - 2:23 (Sung by

) # "A ceux qui sont malades par mer calme" - 3:30 # "A Secret Place" (Staples, Tiersen) - 3:26 (Sung by

Stuart A. Staples Stuart Ashton Staples (born 14 November 1965) is an English musician best known as the lead singer of indie band Tindersticks, in which he also plays guitar. Staples is noted for his crooning vocal style and a bass, nasal voice. Biography Prior ...

) # "Le Matin" - 1:58 # "Les Enfants" - 2:00 # "Le Jour de l'ouverture" (Ané, Miossec, Tiersen) - 3:38 (Sung by

Miossec Christophe Miossec (born 24 December 1964 in Brest, Brittany, France) is a French singer and songwriter. Beginnings Christophe Miossec was not new to the world of music when he met his first success. Between 14 and 17, he was in a teenage ban ...

and

) # "La Boulange" - 2:46 # "La Plage" - 1:57 # "Mary" - 3:38 (Sung by Elizabeth Fraser) # "7:PM" - 2:40 # "Les Retrouvailles" - 1:30 # "La Jetée" - 1:05

Personnel

– accordion, alto saxophone, banjo, bass, Bontempi, carillon, cello, clavecin, double bass, drums, ebow, Fender Rhodes, guitar, Korg synthesizer, mandolin, marimba, melodica, organ, percussion, piano, toy piano, vibraphone, violone *

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

on "Kala" and "Mary" *

- vocals on "Plus d'hiver" *

- vocals on "A Secret Place" *

- vocals on "Le Jour de l'ouverture" *

- vocals on "Le Jour de l'ouverture" *Jean-François Assy -

violoncello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C ...

on "Kala", "La Veillée", "A Secret Place", and "La Boulange" *Orchestre National de Paris on "Kala", "La Veillée", "Le Jour De L'Ouverture", "Mary", and "Les Retrouvailles" *Frederic Dessus -

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

on "La Veillée", "Plus d'hiver" and "Mary" *Guillaume Fontanarosa - violin on "La Veillée", "Plus d'hiver" and "Mary" *Bertrand Causse - vertical viola on "La Veillée", "Plus d'hiver", and "Mary" *Anne Causse Biragnet - violoncello on "La Veillée", "Plus d'hiver", and "Mary" *Armelle Legoff - violin on "Plus d'hiver" and "Mary" *Frédéric Haffner - violin on "Plus d'hiver" and "Mary" *Elliott -

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

on "Les Enfants" *Ludovic Morillon -

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 ...

s on "La Boulange" *

Christine Ott Christine Ott (born 10 August 1963) is a French pianist, vocalist, ondist, and composer. She was a member of Yann Tiersen's band for eight years and played in classical orchestras for ten. She has collaborated with Tindersticks, Syd Matters, ...

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , ) or ondes musicales () is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a lateral-vibrato Keyboard instrument, keyboard or by moving a ring tied to a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. D ...

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

References