Tiersen has been honing his musical aesthetic since he could stand on two legs. He started learning piano at the age of four, taking up violin at the age of six and receiving classical training at musical academies in Rennes, Nantes and Boulogne. Then, at the age of 13, he chose to alter his destiny, breaking his violin into pieces, buying a guitar and forming a rock band.
Yann Tiersen has collaborated with vocal artists like Claire Pichet ("Le phare" and "Rue des cascades"), Elizabeth Fraser ("Les retrouvailles") and Shannon Wright ("Yann Tiersen and Shannon Wright"). Other musicians he has worked with include The Divine Comedy, Noir Désir, Dominique A., Francoiz Breut, Les Têtes Raides, The Married Monk and Sage Francis
Tiersen got a musical education from the city of Rennes' annual Transmusicales festival, seeing acts like Nirvana, Einstürzende Neubaten, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The Cramps, Television and Suicide. When his band broke up a few years later, instead of hunting for some new musicians, he bought a cheap mixing desk, an eight-track reel, and started recording music solo with a synth, sampler and drum machine, poring over the grooves of old records on the hunt for loops and orchestral strings to plunder.
As it turned out, though, the key to his new approach lay in his own past. "One day I thought, instead of spending days on research and listening to tons of records to find the nearest sound of what I have in mind, why don't I fix this fucking violin and use it?" Through the summer of 1993, Tiersen stayed in his apartment, recording music alone with guitar, violin and accordion, guided not by the classical canon, but by intuition and his vision of "a musical anarchy".
By the end of the summer of 1993, Tiersen had recorded over 40 tracks, which would form the bulk of his first two albums. 1995's La Valse Des Monstres, inspired by Tod Browning's Freaks and Yukio Mishima's The Damask Drum was the second album to be released on Nancy-based label Ici, d'ailleurs. It would be followed six months later by Rue Des Cascades, a collection of short pieces recorded with toy piano, harpsichord, violin, accordion and mandolin. Six years later, the record would find a much larger audience when several tracks, along with a couple of Tiersen originals, would be used on the soundtrack to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amelie (2001).
Tiersen's commercial breakthrough would come earlier, though, and off his own back. 1998's Le Phare (The Light House) was recorded in self-imposed seclusion on the isle of Ouessant, where Tiersen spent two months living in a rented house. At night, he watched the Creach'h, the most powerful lighthouse in Europe, as it illuminated the surrounding scenery. "I was amazed how the rays of lights from the lighthouse revealed some hidden details of the land, how we can rediscover something we have everyday, just in front of us, by a light pointing on it," says Tiersen.
Le Phare went on to sell over 160,000 copies, confirming Tiersen's status as one of the most pioneering and original artists of his generation and commencing a run of successful albums like 2001's L'Absente (featuring orchestral group Synaxis, Lisa Germano and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon) and 2005's Les Retrouvailles (with guests Stuart Staples of Tindersticks, Jane Birkin and Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins). In this period, Tiersen also took his music out around the world, playing shows with a full orchestra and an amplified string quartet – a set-up captured on 2002's electrifying live album C'etait ici. And following the box-office success of Amelie, Tiersen's skills as a soundtracker were much in demand, leading to scores for the likes of Wolfgang Becker's tragicomedy Good Bye Lenin! (2003) and Tabarly (2008), a documentary about the French sailor Éric Tabarly, who ate his final meal on Ouessant Island before he meeting a watery end in the Irish sea.
Discography:
La valse des monstres (1995)
Rue des cascades (1996)
Le phare (1998)
Tout est calme (1999)
Black session (1999, radio concert)
L'absente (2001)
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001, Soundtrack)
C'était ici (2002, Live and Best Of)
Good Bye Lenin! (2003, Soundtrack)
Yann Tiersen and Shannon Wright (2004)
Les Retrouvailles (2005)
On Tour (2006, Live)
Tabarly (2008)
Dust Lane (2010)
Bagatelle
Yann Tiersen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Quatre vérités
Qui passent la rampe et gravissent
L'escalier
Les jambes tirent
Et les yeux ont tourné
Va savoir
Où la bouche est tombée
Comme museau levé j'écoute
La voix, je la suis
Top, là! Échangeons des nuits pour
Des nuits
Du coup, l'aube
En sort toute retournée
Le bourreau
A du mal à trancher
Et aussitôt
Quelqu'un manque
Et de rien le jour
Est chargé
Et tout peut se charger d'absence
Rien qui sache mieux qu'elle
S'absenter
Bagatelle, que m'as-tu promis?
Où m'as-tu mené?
Les petites vagues sen sont vite
Emportées
Et morflant
Sous cape, comme habitué
On a vite
Sa table, ses entrées
Des retours de flamme s'annoncent
Leurs trains sont attendus
Ma pancarte est inutile, ils
M'ont reconnu
Dans l'hélice
Où mes doigts sont passés
Je m'avance
Histoire de bien capter
Car rien à faire
Quelqu'un manque
Et de rien le jour est chargé
Et tout peut se charger d'absence
Rien qui sache mieux qu'elle
S'absenter
The song Bagatelle by Yann Tiersen is a melancholic ballad about absence and loss. The opening line of the song, "Tiens, une petite voix me glisse Quatre vérités qui passent la rampe et gravissent L'escalier," translates to "Hold on, a small voice whispers four truths to me that climb the stairs and pass over the rail." Here the artist is describing a sense of intuition, perhaps a feeling of unease or foreboding that comes with the knowledge that something is not right.
The song continues with a series of metaphorical expressions that suggest a sense of disorientation and confusion brought on by loss. For example, "Les jambes tirent et les yeux ont tourné" ("The legs pull and the eyes have turned") might suggest a feeling of dizziness or physical weakness. In the next line, "Va savoir où la bouche est tombée" ("Who knows where the mouth has fallen"), the artist is likely referring to the inability to articulate feelings of loss or grief.
The chorus of the song, "Et tout peut se charger d'absence, rien qui sache mieux qu'elle s'absenter" ("And everything can be filled with absence, nothing knows better than it how to leave"), reinforces the theme of loss and absence. Overall, the song Bagatelle is a poignant meditation on the difficulty of grappling with grief and the emotional disorientation that can come with loss.
Line by Line Meaning
Tiens, une petite voix me glisse
A small voice tells me
Quatre vérités
Four truths
Qui passent la rampe et gravissent
That pass the ramp and climb
L'escalier
The stairs
Les jambes tirent
The legs pull
Et les yeux ont tourné
And the eyes have turned
Va savoir
Who knows
Où la bouche est tombée
Where the mouth has fallen
Comme museau levé j'écoute
Like a raised snout I listen
La voix, je la suis
I follow the voice
Top, là! Échangeons des nuits pour
Hey, let's exchange nights for
Des nuits
More nights
Du coup, l'aube
As a result, the dawn
En sort toute retournée
Comes out all turned around
Le bourreau
The hangman
A du mal à trancher
Has trouble making the cut
Et aussitôt
And immediately
Quelqu'un manque
Someone is missing
Et de rien le jour
And the day is full of nothing
Est chargé
Is charged
Et tout peut se charger d'absence
And everything can be filled with absence
Rien qui sache mieux qu'elle
Nothing knows it better than her
S'absenter
To be absent
Bagatelle, que m'as-tu promis?
Bagatelle, what did you promise me?
Où m'as-tu mené?
Where have you led me?
Les petites vagues sen sont vite
The small waves quickly
Emportées
Were carried away
Et morflant
And suffering
Sous cape, comme habitué
Underneath, like a habitué
On a vite
We quickly
Sa table, ses entrées
Our table, our entries
Des retours de flamme s'annoncent
Flare-ups are announced
Leurs trains sont attendus
Their trains are expected
Ma pancarte est inutile, ils
My sign is useless, they
M'ont reconnu
Have recognized me
Dans l'hélice
In the propeller
Où mes doigts sont passés
Where my fingers have gone
Je m'avance
I move forward
Histoire de bien capter
To really capture
Car rien à faire
Because there's nothing to do
Quelqu'un manque
Someone is missing
Et de rien le jour est chargé
And the day is full of nothing
Et tout peut se charger d'absence
And everything can be filled with absence
Rien qui sache mieux qu'elle
Nothing knows it better than her
S'absenter
To be absent
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Yann Pierre Tiersen, Dominique Ane
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind