Chansons du Crépuscule -“songs of dusk”- is a collection of original songs and interpretations recorded in Paris by New York guitarist/composer Elliott Sharp and French harpist and vocalist Hélène Breschand. The music on the disc was inspired by the music of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg presumably including their classic 1969 recording Je t’aime…moi non plus, whose title, if not its period pop sound, finds an oblique echo in Sharp and Breschand’s “Je t’aime Tant”. Chansons du Crépuscule tends more toward an angular, hard-edged expressionism carrying the strong imprint of Sharp’s sonic alchemy and Breschand’s Dadaesque vocals. But they can switch registers at will, as the softly melancholy “Le Dernier Mot” shows; diverseness is the other side of their virtuosity.
1. Extase (04:58)
2. La langue dans ma bouche (03:36)
3. Je t’aime tant (05:05)
4. Ne lui dis rien (04:36)
5. Goutte A goutte (06:03)
6. The Cuckoo (06:49)
7. Amor (05:02)
8. Le bloque cri (05:56)
9. Nouveau monde (05:27)
10. Le dernier mot (03:28)
11. Chose Rose (01:10)
Recorded by Jean-Charles Versari @ Studio Poptones - May 12, 2014
Mixed and mastered by E# @ Studio zOaR - NYC - July 2014
All French lyrics by Hélène Breschand except La Langue Dans Ma Bouche with lyrics by Elliott Sharp, The Cuckoo which is traditional, and Chose Rose which is an African-American spiritual translated by Marguerite Yourcenar.
Additional text in Le Bloque Cri by Rabindranath Tagore
All songs published by zOaR Music-BMI and Hélène Breschand-SACEM
Photographs by Cy Fore
