The Chanteuse

The Chanteuse is a British singer from Manchester and is one of the UK's leading exponents of French chanson.

She has just released her first studio album which is a collection of songs written by the Nobel Prize winning French author, Patrick Modiano. The album is called MODIANO and is available to BUY HERE.

It is little known that celebrated French author, Patrick Modiano (Nobel Prize, 2014), penned exquisite lyrics for some of the famous yé-yé recording artists in the late 60s/early 70s.  This is an album of those songs and the culmination of a labour of love for The Chanteuse:  She has painstakingly unearthed, dusted off and recorded a collection of this significant writer’s songs.

Musically, the songs encapsulate that iconic post-Mai ‘68 period when Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson, with its unmistakable Gallic bravado, ruled the radio waves.  Yéyé superstars, such as Francoise Hardy, and be-sequinned torch singers, such as Régine, both recorded Modiano’s songs. 

Over time, these recordings have become so highly collectable and difficult to track down that they have been afforded an almost mythical status.  Gathered and lovingly re-recorded here, this album provides a unique collection that spans multiple genres from psychedelic, yéyé, ballad and avant-rock to jazz, bossa and manouche, gypsy folk.

From a literary perspective, these songs stand as early encapsulations of some of the main themes of Modiano’s oeuvre.  Lyrically, they’re unequivocally ‘Modianesque’, a term in French that has come to mean something or someone mysterious and uncertain that holds secrets that either need to be uncovered or that will, eventually, reveal themselves.

You can buy the digital singles and album (on CD and white vinyl) HERE.

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