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)
La relève
Yann Tiersen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
qui éclairait nos nuits et rythmait nos heures.
Je n'y peux rien en quelque sorte,
faut voir tout ce qu'on nous foutait dessus
comme modèles et lignes à suivre.
J'ai pris une chambre un peu plus haut,
je sens bien que n'arrivera jamais
la relève et la remise en route.
In Yann Tiersen's song La relève, the singer reflects on his departure from a place that was once important to him. He describes how he is moving away from the "enseigne verte," or green sign, which used to light up their nights and mark their hours. Despite this departure, the singer acknowledges that it is inevitable and perhaps even necessary, given how the establishment was imposing certain standards and expectations onto them. He has now moved to a room higher up, where he does nothing but watch everything slowly fall apart. He knows that there will never be a chance for new blood to take over and set things right again.
The lyrics of La relève paint a picture of disillusionment and resignation, as the singer realizes that the world they once knew and relied on is fading away. The use of colors - the bright green sign, the stark white walls of the new room - underscores this theme of change and transition. The repetition of "la relève," or the replacement of one generation with another, highlights the fact that things will never be the same again. The slow and deliberate pace of the lyrics matches the mood of introspection and contemplation, as the singer tries to make sense of what has happened and where he fits in this new world order.
Overall, La relève is a poignant and melancholic song that captures the essence of loss and nostalgia. It speaks to anyone who has ever had to leave behind a place or a moment that was once significant to them, and come to terms with the fact that life moves on whether we want it to or not.
Line by Line Meaning
Déjà je m'éloigne de l'enseigne verte
I am already moving away from the green sign that illuminated our nights and kept pace with our hours.
qui éclairait nos nuits et rythmait nos heures.
which illuminated our nights and kept pace with our hours.
Je n'y peux rien en quelque sorte,
I cannot do anything about it in a way,
faut voir tout ce qu'on nous foutait dessus
you have to see all that was imposed on us
comme modèles et lignes à suivre.
as models and guidelines to follow.
J'ai pris une chambre un peu plus haut,
I took a room a little higher up,
où je ne fais rien, où je regarde lentement tout se défaire,
where I do nothing, where I slowly watch everything fall apart,
je sens bien que n'arrivera jamais
I can feel that it will never happen
la relève et la remise en route.
the relief and the restarting.
Contributed by Liliana B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.