Jean-Claude Vannier announces new album Jean-Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines

Photo: Léo Alestro

French musician, composer and arranger Jean-Claude Vannier is something of a restless creative soul with a very long and fascinating résumé. Over his six-decade wide-ranging career, he has worked on myriad film scores, released solo studio albums, collaborated with the likes of Beck, Sean Lennon and Mike Patton, and produced and arranged for everyone including Brigitte Fontaine, Françoise Hardy, Claude François, Johnny Hallyday and Astor Piazzolla, to name but a few. He is most known for his arranging and composing credits on Serge Gainsbourg’s cult record Histoire de Melody Nelson.

Jean-Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines (Jean Claude Vannier and his mandolin orchestra) is Vannier’s latest venture, a gorgeous album created as the soundtrack to a non-existent silent film. The record was composed on mandolin and accordion and features mandolin virtuoso Vincent Beer-Demander and accordionist Grégory Daltin.

We’ll have to wait until February 14th for Jean-Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines to be out through Ipecac but we can already hear the tender and heartfelt first single ‘Perdue dans la cité (Lost in the city)’.

Mike Patton and Jean-Claude Vannier premiere video for ‘A Schoolgirl’s Day’

Mike Patton‘s latest endeavour saw him join forces with French composer Jean-Claude Vannier, and the pair released an album, Corpse Flower, last September though Ipecac Recordings. On the back it, Patton and Vannier have premiered a brilliant and chilling video for ‘A Schoolgirl’s Day’ directed by Nino Del Padre and featuring footage from the 1962 cult horror film, Carnival of Souls. Watch it below.

Mike Patton and Jean-Claude Vannier announce collaborative album Corpse Flower

Mike Patton is no stranger to collaboration and creative connections. His latest endeavour saw him team up with French composer Jean-Claude Vannier, and the outcome of that collaboration is a full-length album. Entitled Corpse Flower, the album features several musicians from LA including Smokey Hormel (Beck, Johnny Cash), Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Air, Nine Inch Nails) and James Gadson (Beck, Jamie Lidell), and also from Paris including Denys Lable, Bernard Paganotti (Magma), Daniel Ciampolini, Didier Malherbe, Léonard Le Cloarec and the Bécon Palace String Ensemble.
Corpse Flower arrives on September 13th though Ipecac recordings but Patton and Vannier are already teasing the album with two tracks, ‘On Top Of The World’ and ‘Chansons D’Amour’. Commenting on the latter, Vannier had this to say:

“When I was a little boy, love songs terrified me, with their stupid Ophelias, faded flowers of melodramatics singers, quavering vocalises of another time, barbaric rituals, screams of impatient sexes, furious and bloody refrains, like in this beautiful and poisonous video. Afterwards, I lived some love stories and it was even worse, all a bazaar puppet show that moved me despite myself, took me hostage and blames me for these crimes that I did not commit”

‘Chansons D’Amour’ comes with an accompanying video, directed by Eric Livingston, who commented on it:

“The melody on Chansons D’ Amour chased me around in the back of my head for a few days after listening. I found it to be a haunting and unapologetically honest version of Vannier’s original piece. When I was given the choice between a few songs to shoot a video accompaniment to, I gravitated towards this one. Mainly, because I knew it would be a challenge for me. To film something that is subtle, yet demands attention.”

Watch the video below and listen to ‘On Top Of The World’ straight after.