A promising Dutch ambassador for French chanson! With Chante La Vie, Hague-based singer-songwriter Tess Merlot (Tess van der Zwet) created a personal album of moving, narrative songs in the beautiful French language. With a clear, elegant singing voice, Merlot sings about memories of her birthplace, of her grandmother who played mandolin, about a childhood wish, about friendship, about falling in
… love and also being abandoned again. In the creative process, she was assisted by composer, pianist and arranger Guillaume Marcenac and Parisian lyricist Zoé Simpson. The subtle accompaniment is a warm tapestry of keyboard, accordion, mandolin, guitar, violin, cello, drums and percussion. The final tracks are two songs in a Dutch-language version. One is a duet with guest singer Ben Cramer, whom she knows from playing together in the musical De Schone van Boskoop. The closing track is the English-language song Dengba Garden. (SvdP)more
