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)
Monuments
Yann Tiersen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
They're sinking in vain.
Tiny moments of mine,
They're floating in space.
The lyrics of Yann Tiersen's Monuments express the transience of human life and the futility of man-made endeavors. The first two lines reflect on how all of the monuments that mankind has built for itself—perhaps including things like towering skyscrapers or grand, imposing works of public art—will eventually fall to ruin and cease to exist. Despite the efforts and resources poured into their creation, they are ultimately temporary and fleeting, sinking into the dust of history. Contrastingly, the singer reflects on their own "tiny moments" as being weightless and free, able to float endlessly in space. While they may lack the grandeur and scale of monumental human achievement, these moments are inherently more enduring due to their intangibility and the subjective significance they hold for the singer.
Overall, the lyrics convey a sense of humility and reflection regarding the impermanence of life and the inevitability of decay. Where humans may fight against the natural entropy of their environment and create things that seem impressive, they are ultimately at the mercy of time and the pressures of the natural world. This is contrasted with the idea that, in spite of this, individual moments or experiences can hold deep, profound meaning and can carry on indefinitely in the memory of those who experienced them.
Line by Line Meaning
All monuments of men,
Every structure built by mankind, meant to last as a symbol of their achievements throughout history,
They're sinking in vain.
In reality, however, they are slowly breaking down and collapsing over time, their grandeur and significance ultimately forgotten in the grand scheme of the universe.
Tiny moments of mine,
Meanwhile, my own individual experiences and memories are fleeting and insignificant,
They're floating in space.
With no grand structures or monuments to commemorate or immortalize them, these small moments become ultimately lost and forgotten in the vast expanse of time and space.
Contributed by Tyler C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@euirislarissa
Muito bom!!!
@TheJjcepeda
Desde la primera vez que escuche a este gran hombre, pienso que en 50 o 100 años sera un beethoven o mozart. Cada composición es una poesía. Es increíble. Aunque admito que la música que toca ahora no me gusta tanto como la instrumental que tocaba cuando empezó. Gracias Yann.
@ensangomdig
I'm in love with Yann Tiersen's songs.
@iamsurebabydoll
this is amazing... holds a lot of meaning
@Propiavida
Este video es impresionante, muestra las pequeñas miserias humanas personificadas, y hace alusión a grandes problemas que conlleva esta sociedad "desarrollada" : La infelicidad, el egocentrismo, el morbo, el sexo bizarro, el manejo de los hechos por parte de los medios.. que de tan cotidianos los empezamos a creer normales.
@wthppl
I prefer his more minimalistic stuffs, like just the pianos and stuff, but this is still pure magic.
@Obniaa
Music that needs to be listened again before I die ( will update the list by next week) 1. Nils Frahm – Snippet 2. Dustin O’ Holloran – 3. Sigur Ros – too many 4. Johann Johannsson – The rocket builder (lo pain) 5. Library tapes – Above the flood 6. Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – Live improvisation at Roter Salon – Volksbuhne Berlin 7. Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – a2 (max cooper remix ) 8. Form the movie babel 9. Eric Satie - 10. Yann Tiersen - Monuments
@RafaelVOrellanoOficial
All monuments of men,
They're sinking in vain.
Tiny moments of mine,
They're floating in space
Monuments By Yann Tiersen
@n.c.lightning
I personally enjoy listening to his voice lol but I have to agree... his best works are definitely his instrumentalist works
@IndieBirdieMusic
Love this song!!!