Originally from Toulouse, France, Olivier Alary created Ensemble as his mus… Read Full Bio ↴Originally from Toulouse, France, Olivier Alary created Ensemble as his musical persona in 1998, as a platform to explore the meeting point between melodic noise and disjointed pop.

After dropping out from an architecture course at college, Olivier moved to London. Initially working under the name ‘Hearing Is Our Concern’, he was actually the first person the newly-founded FatCat label ever received a demo from, although nothing came of this at the time, as Olivier wanted to do further work on his tracks. The name was changed to Ensemble and a chance meeting with Rephlex Records in 2000 resulted in the release of his first album, ‘Sketch Proposals’.

While not widely released, ‘Sketch Proposals’ did gain a small, dedicated audience, not least of which included Bjork, who had the album on heavy rotation while working on her 2001 album ‘Vespertine’. We put Olivier in touch with her and in 2002, Ensemble’s remixes of Bjork’s ‘Sun In My Mouth’ and ‘Cocoon’ were released as b-sides. Their collaborative relationship eventually led to Olivier’s co-writing of the song ‘Desired Constellation’ on Bjork’s 2004 album ‘Medulla’, and still more remixes on the ‘Triumph of a Heart’ single.

Around this time, Olivier continued work on a follow-up to ‘Sketch Proposals’, aiming to collide symphonic walls-of-sound with intimate folk-pop vocal pieces. Recorded over a period of 3 years, and composed mainly in Montreal, where he now resides, Olivier traveled from Canada, to Atlanta, then to a countryside farm in French Dordogne, and finally to Berlin for his recordings, with each disparate environment absorbed into the moods of each track. Expanding on his collaborative spirit, 2006’s new album (‘Ensemble’) features beautiful vocal performances by Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr.) and UK-based Mileece, as well as drums by Adam Pierce from Mice Parade and orchestral arrangements by Johannes Malfatti, performed by the Babelsberg Film Orchestra in Germany.

Additionally, Olivier remixed the b-side track, ‘That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy’, on The Twilight Sad’s single ‘And She Would Darken The Memory’, released in July 2007.

Olivier has also composed music for several exhibitions at the V&A museum; contributed to an Audio-Video installation by Doug Aitken at the Centre Georges Pompidou; and received an honorary mention at the Ars Electronica Festival for his noise side project, Chlorgeschlecht. He has also provided the soundtrack for the 2008 film 'Up The Yangtze', directed by Yung Chang.

Ensemble's newest album - 'Excerpts' - was released in January 2011. A beautiful, sophisticated record of orchestrated pop songs on the theme of fictional and false memories, the album features collaborators Johannes Malfatti (himself an award-winning theatre / film composer) and vocalist Darcy Conroy.

Hammer
Ensemble Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Joan was quizzical; studied pataphysical
Science in the home.
Late nights all alone with a test tube.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine,
Calls her on the phone.
"Can I take you out to the pictures,

Joa, oa, oa, oan?"

But as she's getting ready to go,
A knock comes on the door.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.

Back in school again Maxwell plays the fool again.
Teacher gets annoyed.
Wishing to avoid and unpleasant
Sce, e, e, ene,

She tells Max to stay when the class has gone away,
So he waits behind
Writing fifty times "I must not be
So, o, o, o"

But when she turns her back on the boy,
He creeps up from behind.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.

P. C. Thirty-one said, "We caught a dirty one."
Maxwell stands alone
Painting testimonial pictures.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Rose and Valerie, screaming from the gallery
Say he must go free
(Maxwell must go free)
The judge does not agree and he tells them
So, o, o, o.

But as the words are leaving his lips,
A noise comes from behind.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon his head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that he was dead.

Whoa, oh, oh, oh.
Silver hammer man

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Ensemble's song "Hammer" tell the story of a man named Maxwell Edison who goes on a killing spree using a silver hammer. In the first verse, we meet Joan, who is studying pataphysical science in her home laboratory. Maxwell calls her and asks her out to the pictures, but before she can leave, he knocks on her door and kills her with the hammer. In the second verse, Maxwell is back in school playing the fool and irritating his teacher. She punishes him by making him stay after class to write lines, but when her back is turned, he creeps up on her and kills her with the hammer. In the final verse, Maxwell is caught and goes to court. Two women in the audience beg for his release, but the judge refuses, and as he speaks, Maxwell kills him with the hammer.

On the surface, the lyrics seem like a simple story about a serial killer. However, there is more going on beneath the surface. The song can be interpreted as a commentary on how society treats mentally ill people. Maxwell may be suffering from a mental illness that causes him to commit these murders. The line "P.C. Thirty-one said, 'We caught a dirty one'" suggests that the police have caught him but don't know how to deal with him, so they lock him up and throw away the key. The two women in the courtroom who cry for his release may represent people who want to help him, but their cries are ignored. The song seems to suggest that society is failing people like Maxwell and that more needs to be done to help them.

Line by Line Meaning

Joan was quizzical; studied pataphysical Science in the home.
Joan was inquisitive and had an interest in pataphysics, which she studied at home.

Late nights all alone with a test tube. Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Joan spent late nights working alone with a test tube.

Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine, Calls her on the phone. "Can I take you out to the pictures, Joa, oa, oa, oan?"
Maxwell Edison, who was studying medicine, calls Joan on the phone and asks her out to the movies.

But as she's getting ready to go, A knock comes on the door.
Just as Joan is about to leave, someone knocks on her door.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer Came down upon her head. Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer Made sure that she was dead.
Maxwell strikes Joan on the head twice with a silver hammer, killing her.

Back in school again Maxwell plays the fool again. Teacher gets annoyed. Wishing to avoid and unpleasant Sce, e, e, ene,
Maxwell is back in school and acts foolishly, which annoys his teacher, who wants to avoid an unpleasant situation.

She tells Max to stay when the class has gone away, So he waits behind Writing fifty times "I must not be So, o, o, o"
The teacher tells Maxwell to stay behind after class and write lines, "I must not be so" fifty times.

But when she turns her back on the boy, He creeps up from behind.
When the teacher turns her back, Maxwell creeps up behind her.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer Came down upon her head. Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer Made sure that she was dead.
Maxwell strikes the teacher on the head twice with the silver hammer, killing her.

P. C. Thirty-one said, "We caught a dirty one." Maxwell stands alone Painting testimonial pictures. Oh, oh, oh, oh.
The police capture Maxwell and accuse him of a crime. He's left alone and starts painting pictures that will be used as evidence.

Rose and Valerie, screaming from the gallery Say he must go free (Maxwell must go free) The judge does not agree and he tells them So, o, o, o.
Rose and Valerie, who are watching from the gallery, demand that Maxwell be set free. However, the judge disagrees and tells them so.

But as the words are leaving his lips, A noise comes from behind.
As the judge is speaking, a noise is heard from behind him.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer Came down upon his head. Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer Made sure that he was dead.
Maxwell hits the judge twice with the silver hammer, killing him.

Whoa, oh, oh, oh. Silver hammer man
This last line does not have a clear meaning in the context of the song, so it is open to interpretation.

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: John Lennon, Paul Mccartney

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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