Performer: Yann Tiersen
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Mute
Release: 2019
Size: 1.06 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Introductory Movement (Feat. Stephen O’Malley)
02. The Long Road (La Longue Route)
03. Monochrome (Feat. Gruff Rhys)
04. Chapter 19
05. Rue de Cascades
06. The Old Man Still Wants It
07. Gwennilied (Feat. Emilie Tiersen)
08. Prad (Feat. Stephen O’Malley)
09. Diouz An Noz
10. Porz Goret
11. La Dispute
12. Pell
13. Erc’h
14. The Wire (Sur Le Fill)
15. The Waltz Of The Monsters
16. Closer (Feat. Blonde Redhead)
17. Naval
18. The Jetty
19. Koad
20. Prayer No. 2
21. Gronjord
22. Kala
23. Comptine d’Un Autre Ete (L’Apres-Midi)
24. Tempelhof (Part 2)
25. Thinking Like A Mountain (Feat. John Grant And Stephen O’Malley)
A collection of 25 newly recorded tracks from throughout his career that includes three new songs, out on Mute on 6 December 2019. The album will be released on heavyweight triple vinyl, double CD and digitally. Both the clear and black vinyl editions of Portrait include a 7” with exclusive harpsichord versions of ‘Comptine d’Un Autre Été (L’Après-Midi)’ and ‘The Waltz of the Monsters’, unavailable elsewhere.
Recorded with musicians together live in The Eskal studio to 24 track 2 inch tape,mixed to stereo ¼ inch tape then mastered from tape to vinyl, the album is a fully analogue approach for Tiersen. “Limiting our ability to digitally manipulate, overdub or make changes after deciding a creative path gave an energy and beautiful tension to the recording process which I’d found was being lost with the limitless possibilities of digital recording. Not translating sounds into 1 and 0 keeps music in the real world.
Featuring collaborations with John Grant, Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals, Stephen O’Malley from Sunn O))), and Blonde Redhead, the album was recorded with touring collaborators Emilie Tiersen, Ólavur Jákupsson and Jens L Thomsen at The Eskal, the new analogue studio complex Tiersen recently built on his home island of Ushant in Brittany.
“The apparent lightness or simplicity of some of my tracks has always been a disguise or reaction to their darker side. For instance “La Dispute” is about extreme violence, blood, death and the strange state of shock you feel in the moments after something horrible has happened. That’s one of my darkest tracks and I’ve always felt uncomfortable with the idea of people thinking it’s a romantic thing to listen to on a date.
People seemed to understand it when it was first released, but the use of my music for cinematic purposes put a sort of false mask on the face of the monster.
Portrait puts my tracks in context again so people can listen to my music and see it for what it is and not for what it’s been used for.”