And yet like other sound artists cast in the same mould (from François de Roubaix to Pascal Comelade or even Ennio Morricone), René Aubry has settled into our musical world.
As a young man, he developed a passion for the guitar but was more attracted to the soft arpeggios of Leonard Cohen than the biting riffs of Led Zeppelin.
Together with his brother, he set out to work “in the footsteps of Catherine Ribeiro and François Béranger”.
However, it was his encounter with Carolyn Carlson that propelled him along a less crowded path. René Aubry became “a composer of ballet music”, while at the same time making it a point of honour to produce albums for the pure pleasure of listening to music.
As a composer, player of numerous instruments, and his own sound engineer, René Aubry works alone on his albums, blending classical harmonies with modern instrumentation, samples of voices or violins “taken from Beethoven, Stravinsky or Puccini”. Archivists tear their hair out in despair because his work has a place on all the record shops shelves: classical, ballet, new age, new music, rock, French variety, and world music.
The urge to appear on stage came to him later and despite himself. In the early nineties, when the organisers of the “Festival of Possible Music”, Time Zone, in Bari, Italy, asked him to give a concert, he initially refused. However, after much persuasion, he eventually gave in “after nearly three years of discussions over the telephone!” In 1994, he finally shared the festival’s line-up with Philip Glass, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and David Byrne. Not bad for a baptism of fire!
In 1997, he composed Signes, a ballet by Carolyn Carlson, with the première held at the Opera Bastille, winning an award at the "Victoires de la Musique Classique et du Jazz" in 1998.
His albums Plaisirs d’amour and Invités sur la Terre were the starting point for a return to more acoustic compositions as a result of his determination to continue his stage experience. The timid tinker, who handled his musical craft on his own, learned how to make instrumentalists work on his music and, above all, to appreciate contacts with the public. He performed one concert after another, travelling all over Europe with his septet.
And as soon as he seemed to have settled into this “system”, this unpredictable artist, with his love of freedom, again astonished everybody with Seuls au Monde, a sombre and electric record marked by the 11th of September. In this record, he went back to his programming and tinkering to share with us his alarmist but lucid view of our world.
His Projection Privée, a fantasy centred on San-Antonio, the famous character of Frédéric Dard, was released in 2004 and included the original soundtrack of the film Malabar Princess.
Allow yourself, today, to be tempted by the new Opus of René Aubry, whose liberated career is a reminder that this atypical artist, constantly acclaimed by a local public, deserves more than ever to be celebrated!
In reality, Memoires du futur is an album with ethereal overtones, a timeless work, punctuated by songs, including Viendras-tu avec moi?, a highly influential title that is breathtaking and out-of-the-ordinary, like its performer.
Vent
René Aubry Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent fripon, prudence prends garde à ton jupon
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent maraud, prudent prends garde à ton chapeau
Les jean-foutre et les gens probes
Qui rebrousse les bois, détrousse les toits, retrousse les robes
Des jean-foutre et des gens probes
Le vent, je vous en réponds
S'en soucie, et c'est justice, comme de colin-tampon
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent fripon, prudence prends garde à ton jupon
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent maraud, prudent prends garde à ton chapeau
Bien sûr, si l'on ne se fonde
Que sur ce qui saute aux yeux
Le vent semble une brute raffolant de nuire à tout l'monde
Mais une attention profonde
Prouve que c'est chez les fâcheux
Qu'il préfère choisir les victimes de ses petits jeux
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent fripon, prudence prends garde à ton jupon
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent maraud, prudent prends garde à ton chapeau
The lyrics to René Aubry's song "Le Vent" warn the listener to be cautious when encountering the playful and mischievous wind. The first two stanzas describe the potential danger to one's clothing - a "jupon" or skirt - or hat when encountering the "fripon" or mischievous wind on the Pont des Arts in Paris. The third stanza suggests that even respectable people, the "gens probes," join the "jean-foutre" or slackers in maligning the wind. Despite its destructive potential, the wind ultimately only bothers those whom it chooses, just as Colin-Tampon, a reference to a popular game from the past, would choose its "victims" in a game.
However, the fourth stanza suggests that the wind is not simply a troublemaker. Those who only look at surface appearances might see the wind as a brute that loves to harm everyone. Yet someone who pays closer attention can see that the wind prefers to play tricks on those who are already troublesome. Ultimately, the message of the song seems to be one of balance - the wind, like life itself, has an element of danger and unpredictability, but it can also be a source of fun and playfulness, especially if one is able to maintain a certain degree of prudence.
Line by Line Meaning
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent fripon, prudence prends garde à ton jupon
If, by chance, on the Pont des Arts, you come across the tricky wind, beware of your skirt.
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent maraud, prudent prends garde à ton chapeau
If, by chance, on the Pont des Arts, you come across the mischievous wind, beware of your hat.
Les jean-foutre et les gens probes
Médisent du vent furibond
Qui rebrousse les bois, détrousse les toits, retrousse les robes
Des jean-foutre et des gens probes
Le vent, je vous en réponds
S'en soucie, et c'est justice, comme de colin-tampon
Idle people and honest people gossip about the raging wind that tousles the trees, uncovers rooftops, and lifts dresses. But I assure you that the wind doesn't discriminate, like in the game of 'colin-tampon.'
Bien sûr, si l'on ne se fonde
Que sur ce qui saute aux yeux
Le vent semble une brute raffolant de nuire à tout l'monde
Mais une attention profonde
Prouve que c'est chez les fâcheux
Qu'il préfère choisir les victimes de ses petits jeux
Of course, if we only judge by appearances, the wind seems like a brute who enjoys causing trouble for everyone. But if we pay close attention, we'll see that it's the troublemakers he prefers to choose as victims of his pranks.
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent fripon, prudence prends garde à ton jupon
If, by chance, on the Pont des Arts, you come across the tricky wind, beware of your skirt.
Si, par hasard
Sur l'Pont des Arts
Tu croises le vent, le vent maraud, prudent prends garde à ton chapeau
If, by chance, on the Pont des Arts, you come across the mischievous wind, beware of your hat.
Lyrics © WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC FRANCE
Written by: Georges Brassens
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind