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)
Hent I
Yann Tiersen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Simfonienn veureel. Sonerezh milvedel
O tiwan bep mintin notenn goude notenn
War glaouier an Natur
Hervez faltazi an Arzour diwelus
Kanenn an deil o sourral er gwez
Chourig an dour da vili ar wazh
Hiboud ar stêr ha bourbouilh ar froud
Garm ar skrilh el lanneg krin
Beuregan an tad-moualc'h
D'e barez war wiriñ
The lyrics are in Breton, a Celtic language spoken in Brittany (France), and translate to "Every day similar, every day different. A symphony of colors. A thousand sounds, played note by note, on the voice of nature. As the mischievous breeze of the bard wanders, a lullaby is sung in the trees. The water murmurs in the valley, the river swells and the brook rumbles. The scent of gorse in the heart of the moors. The scream of the seagull in the wild heath.
The lyrics evoke the beauty and diversity of nature, with each day being both familiar and unique. The mention of a symphony implies that the sounds of nature are harmonious and carefully arranged. The lyrics also highlight the interconnectedness of various natural elements, including the wind, trees, water, and wildlife. The vivid imagery and sensory language make the listener feel like they are immersed in the natural world.
Overall, the lyrics of "Hent I" are an ode to the beauty of nature and the importance of appreciating it in all its complexity and diversity.
Line by Line Meaning
Bemdez heñvel ha bemdez disheñvel
Everyday is the same and everyday is different
Simfonienn veureel. Sonerezh milvedel
A gentle symphony. A music from the past
O tiwan bep mintin notenn goude notenn
Playing every morning note after note
War glaouier an Natur
In the whisper of nature
Hervez faltazi an Arzour diwelus
Following the mysterious artist's footsteps
Kanenn an deil o sourral er gwez
The sound of a harp echoing in the woods
Chourig an dour da vili ar wazh
The water rushes through the meadow
Hiboud ar stêr ha bourbouilh ar froud
The river flows calmly and the brook bubbles
Safron ar sardon e kalon ar bleuñv
The color of saffron in the heart of the flower
Garm ar skrilh el lanneg krin
The sound of footsteps on the rocky shore
Beuregan an tad-moualc'h
The murmur of the owl
D'e barez war wiriñ
Leading us to wonder
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: ANGELA DUVAL, YANN TIERSEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@katoolli
Without Yann Tiersen's music I wouldn't be able to translate or write. <3
@sofiablades7059
Katy Keshavarzi wait do you have the translation for this
@Scooter430
It’s Breton. A poem by Anjelah Duvall.
@poedizm1
@@Scooter430 I can not seem to find the poem from Anjelah Duvall. Can you point me in the right direction please?
@richardwang3340
When I first saw this, I read the number "1" as the letter "I". And now I can't stop reading it that way, senpai.
@shinkikomori7386
please dont use these words along with this man's music. before u call me a boomer, im a weeb myself. but please refrain from relating hentai to any of this
@jojaxoroz340
@@shinkikomori7386 no
@shinkikomori7386
@@jojaxoroz340 yes.
@matthiasamaderro6102
@@shinkikomori7386 Well he named it pretty badly, so what can ya do people are going to make fun of it now no matter what. Good music though.
@RosyHernandez-qc5ni
hermoso.