Yann Tiersen - Minimalism for Folk Hearts

Just turned forty, half-Belgian and half-Norwegian, Yann Tiersen is in all likelihood the best-known minimalist to the general public. Made famous by the soundtrack to “Il favoloso mondo di Amélie” [Amélie], he arrives today with “Dust Lane”, his sixth album. A twenty-minute phone chat lets us get to know him and his music a little better.

“And yet, I started out with post-punk. Stooges and Joy Division taught me, as a kid, that technique isn't what matters. If I did end up changing my sound, it was mainly because I changed my instruments: back then I was messing around a lot with samplers, and I liked including acoustic timbres too. Then I told myself: 'Why not play them myself? After all, I'm capable of it…'”.

Yann Tiersen's English is a little shaky, and his rolled r's give it away as unmistakably French. About the consequences of international fame he has no doubts: “Nothing changed with Amélie, not least because it isn't a soundtrack written from scratch. Only three tracks were composed specifically for it; the others come from my first three records. With the soundtracks for “Good Bye Lenin!” and “Tabarly” it was different — there I tried to develop a theme and a style through entirely new compositions. Writing soundtracks is a stimulating experience, because you have to think not just about the music but also about the images and the rhythm of a narrative. I couldn't say whether I prefer that, or the purely musical side of composing in the studio, or the energy of playing live. What's certain is that these are three irreplaceable parts of my music, and each gives me feelings that satisfy me completely”.

Collaborations, too, see Yann Tiersen perfectly at ease. “A musician's art is made of encounters,” he sums up, “and the creative exchange with another personality can bring out sides of both people that are different from the usual ones”. Among the most recent and interesting is the This Immortal Coil project: “The Dark Age of Love” (Ondarock's album of the month last year) features him alongside Matt Elliott on three tracks. “At Ici d'Ailleurs we're all huge Coil lovers, and when it came to splitting up the work it was natural for me to look for common ground with Matt. We have a lot in common in terms of sensibility”.

Elliott also returns on “Dust Lane”, just released on Mute Records. “On this album, I wanted to work more on the vocals and the shape of the songs. The idea is still that of a flow that carries the listener along, but richer and at the same time freer in terms of structure. I used to write mostly instrumental pieces, but I'd structure them like songs, in a rather schematic way. Now I make actual songs, with words, but it can happen that the vocal only arrives at the very end! It's all more fluid. It's not a change of direction, it's something I'd been trying to do for a while: after all, “Les retrouvailles” was something of a testing ground for “Dust Lane”. But this is the first time I've actually managed to pull it off.

“When I compose music, I don't sit down at a desk and think. I pick up an instrument and try to empty my head, then I start improvising. That's why I prefer acoustic instruments: they let me take a more instinctive approach. I record everything I do, always. That's how my pieces come about: even the final versions are nothing more than a selection from takes like these. That's why it can happen that I start out with one idea but end up making something completely different; it all depends on the mood of the moment. I'm really happy that while I was working on “Dust Lane” the right spirit came together for something I'd been wanting to do for years.

“I also tried to broaden the palette with electronics. I love the slightly retro sound of instruments like the Moog or the Ondes Martenot used by Olivier Messiaën. When I was composing, I really had his works in mind, or The Rite of Spring. I wanted to create a rich fresco, but one where you could still closely observe every detail”.

Never as much as in this work does a synergy emerge with the choral spirit of much of today's music, which draws on elements dear to Tiersen: folklore, symphonic grandeur and a melancholy sense of lightheartedness. “I think this is really a great moment for music. I love the style of Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Sigur Rós, and especially Sufjan Stevens. His latest EP is beautiful, and it's very close to my own way of approaching electronics. I think we're living through a return to the spirit of the Sixties, when music meant creativity and sharing. Even audiences have dropped the tribal divisions of a few decades ago: at a concert you find all kinds of people, and for musicians too the feeling is similar — the mixing feels completely natural”.

In the end, Yann Tiersen feels more at home in the enthusiasm of this cross-genre scene than in the labels critics have pinned on him. "Modern classical? Bullshit!" he cuts in.

And the future? "In October the tour for 'Dust Lane' kicks off. We'll play tracks from the album plus a few older pieces. Even the Amélie ones: loads of people come just to hear those, and they end up thrown by the completely reworked versions we enjoy playing. We try not to repeat ourselves! At first, some people even walked out of the show because the sound was too rock. They were expecting nothing but accordions and Montmartre... But now everyone quickly gets in tune with the new style.

Obviously with the 'Dust Lane' tracks too we'll try to surprise people: we've got fully acoustic versions planned, with strings and horns.

The tour opens in New York and will stop twice in Italy: November 25th in Milan, the 27th in Rimini. A great chance to discover that Yann Tiersen is much more than the man behind a couple of pretty soundtracks...

(10/10/2010)

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