After his CD together with singer / songwriter Shannon Wright, Les Retrouvailles is another CD by multi-instrumentalist Yann Tiersen himself. Fortunately, because the collaboration with Wright yielded a somewhat disappointing result. The composer of the Amélie and Good Bye Lenin! Soundtracks could do better, and he shows that on Les Retrouvailles. The album was largely recorded on a small island
… off the coast of Brittany and is again a real Tiersen CD: he played almost all the instruments himself, it of course includes waltzes and solo piano pieces and there are contributions from a few guest vocalists. This time, this included Stuart Staples (Tindersticks), Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) and Jane Birkin. Especially the contributions of Fraser (especially the song Mary) and Birkin stand out, but also the songs in which Tiersen only plays with a piano, violin, melodica, harpsichord, accordion or any other instrument are often very beautiful and atmospheric. Yann Tiersen's music can be playful and light as well as melancholic and moving at the same time, and that is again his great strength on Les Retrouvailles. (IV)more
