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'Amelie' musician's new album features minimalism and ambience
The Advocate
Yann Tiersen's American release of his album "Skyline" will hit stores Tuesday, just in time for his American tour. Tiersen will be performing at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland May 10 and tickets are currently $18.
Overall, the album is a charm to listen to. Save for one track, it's a great CD to zone out with while winding down or doing homework. Tiersen, a French musician, uses a wide variety of instruments to create music which strikes the listener from all angles.
The album starts solidly with "After Shore," which sounds as if it could possibly be used in a sad buildup to an epic scene for some sci-fi movie. It has a nice mix of rock-type bass, electric and drums laying down the foundation while a steady acoustic melody plays in the foreground. He uses the synthesizer and various orchestral instruments effectively to give the song a powerful and dynamic sound.
The second track, "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow," includes a chorus of vocals backed by a fat, steady bass beat. It alternates between slow portions with minimal instruments playing to lively choruses where Tiersen goes all out with the use of synths and orchestra.
By "Monuments," which is also a single, one can start to sense that the album has the undertone of rock, with the steady use of drums, bass and electric guitar as the backbone to most songs. "Monuments is no different but it still keeps a smooth, calm sound with the use of acoustics and singing style similar to Air, which can be best described as ambient.
The transition to the next song, "Gutters" was very smooth and almost unnoticeable. It starts with what seems like a static-y radio broadcast of a political speech in some sort of Latin language. Guitars and drums are slowly introduced into the song with eventually female vocals while the broadcast continues.
While it's clear Tiersen enjoys experimenting with new sounds, such as using the typewriter as an instrument, the use of howling in "Exit 25 Block 20" was distasteful. It's not pleasant to listen to creepy howling, which I assume were human howls, while enjoying the otherwise laidback music. All that aside, the track is surprisingly bubbly with upbeat melodies.
"Hesitation Wound" is one of the more vocal-heavy tracks with both male and female ambient vocals after a lengthy build-up and is one of the less rock-sounding tracks. Although not one of the more memorable tracks, it really showed how well the album came together despite the wide range of musical tone Tiersen compiled.
It leads into the next track, "Forgive Me," which starts with upbeat acoustics and brings back the rock-esque sound throughout the album. It is the longest track on the album, which gives way to reveal how repetitive the song is, but in an amicable way which is not boring.
The first half of "The Trial" was very minimalistic with none of the rock sounds it usually employs until later in the second half. It surprisingly incorporated screeching violin sounds in a way that worked, and led into the more instrument-heavy second half while keeping the laid back minimalist feel.
Wrapping up the album is a very fitting track, "Vanishing Point." It starts eerily quiet with some synths and ambient vocals building up to a toned down rock and winds down like a machine shutting down at the very end. It is hard to pinpoint the genre in which Tiersen's music would fall under, so it can reasonably be described as avant-garde. Although it may not be anything like what one might hear on the radio, it is certainly enjoyable enough to warrant a listen.
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