Vannier, Jean Claude: Jean Claude Vannier Et Son Orchestre De Mandolines (Vinyl LP)

Jean Claude Vannier is most well-known for his work with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. His resume is too long to list here, with work going back almost 60 years to 1968.

Featured artists on the release include Vincent Beer-Demander and Grégory Daltin. Vincent is an award-winning musician who collaborates with the French National Orchestra and countless others. Grégory has worked alongside artists such as Michel Godard, Denis Pascal and more.

The project was born from an unusual encounter between the man the press call ‘The Rare Bird’ and the famous mandolinist from Marseilles, a pioneer in the revival of this small Mediterranean lute.

Jean Claude Vannier has created an album that is both poetic and out of step, in which the mandolin is multiplied to form a singular orchestral sound palette, mingled with the accordion’s soufflet and the composer’s use of the solo mandolin: taping, bottleneck, percussion ,treble.

A pinch of strings, a hint of childhood, melodies that touch the heart, orchestration that’s never expected - these are the emotions that emerge from this album by Jean Claude Vannier.

“When I was a child, my parents used to take me to Parc Montsouris ,where the Mandolin Club de Paris played regularly! I loved it right away. The sound, and above all the emotion I felt, which is still there. So when Vincent came to see me, I started writing a lot of stuff for him, with his fifty or so mandolins, high and low, these mandolins, mandolone and accordion. This orchestra is extraordinary. A crazy thing! What appealed to me was that it could be written and arranged for a large mandolin orchestra. I created this new album as the musical score for a silent film, and we recorded it in Marseille, in this city where mandolins fall from trees.” - Jean Claude Vannier

1. Moi, ma mandoline
   
2. Comme les enfants savent aimer
   
3. La 2CV disparaît au coin de la rue
   
4. Perdue dans la cité
   
5. Il y avait des éléphants
   
6. À cause de mes problèmes
   
7. Une séance photo sous les arcades
   
8. Belle à pleurer
   
9. Danse des maillots de bain
   
10. Nos regards se sont croisés
    
11. La 2CV rouillée
    
12. Un petit bout de verre cassé
    
13. Les feux arrière de l'ambulance