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French singer Brigitte Fontaine made a series of increasingly strange and eclectic art-pop in the 1970s that gathered a lot of acclaim in France, although she remains obscure to an international audience. Initially she was an eccentric but accessible pop singer, presenting melodic and orchestrated material a la a more daring version of late-'60s/early-'70s Francoise Hardy. On her first album, she worked with arranger Jean Claude Vannier, who had also done arrangements for Serge Gainsbourg. On subsequent records she got jazzier, and then into more difficult directions of avant-gardism and art song. Her albums were commendably wide-ranging, and undeniably erratic. She could employ African tribal rhythms, discordant progressive jazz, pretty folky melodies, throat-stretching a cappella vocals, spoken poetry, and pious classical arrangements, sometimes with a stoned recklessness. On some albums she collaborated with the less impressive male writer and singer Areski, whose rough vocals contrasted incongruously with Fontaine's sweet and mature tone. Fontaine returned to recording in the 1990s, around the time her vintage work slowly began to accumulate a cult following among English-speaking listeners.
from Wikipedia:
Brigitte Fontaine, born in 1939 in Morlaix in the Brittany region of France, is a singer of avant-garde music. During the course of her career she has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry and world rhythms. She has collaborated with such celebrated musicians as Stereolab, Michel Colombier, Jean-Claude Vannier, Areski Belkacem, Gotan Project, Sonic Youth, Antoine Duhamel, Grace Jones, Noir Désir, Archie Shepp, Arno and The Art Ensemble of Chicago. She is also a novelist, writer, actress, playwright, and poet.
Artistic Overview
The daughter of two teachers, Brigitte Fontaine developed her taste for writing and comedy very early. She spent her childhood in small villages of Finistère, then in Morlaix. At 17 years old, she moved to Paris in order to become an actress.
1963–1968
In 1963, she turned to singing and appeared in several Parisian theatres, interpreting her own works. In 1964, she opened for Barbara and George Brassens’s show at the Bobino. Even so, she did not give up comedy. With Jacques Higelin and actor Rufus, she created the play Maman j'ai peur ("Mom I am afraid"), which played first at the Vieille-Grille theatre, and then at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. It met with such a critical and popular success that it stayed in Paris for more than two seasons and toured throughout Europe.
In 1965 and then in 1968, she made two albums, one avant-pop and one free jazz, as well as two 45s with Jacques Higelin. In 1969, she began what would be a long collaboration with Kabyle musician Areski Belkacem. With Belkacem and in the company of Higelin, she conceived Niok, an innovative spectacle of theatre and song, for the Lucernaire theatre. Soon after, Fontaine wrote a series of works in free verse and prose which comprised the show Comme à la radio at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier before being turned into an album. Recorded with The Art Ensemble of Chicago, this album marks a clean break with traditional French songs, building the first bridges to world music.
1969–1979
Brigitte Fontaine became a major figure in the French underground. In a half-dozen albums, the majority of which were released through the independent label Saravah, Fontaine explored different poetic worlds. She renounced the use of rhyme, and using talk-over sometimes, she recorded, with very little means and often on two tracks, songs which addressed topics with humour or gravity, according to the mood, as various as death ("Dommage que tu sois mort"), life ("L’été, l’été"), alienation ("Comme à la radio"), madness ("Ragilia"), love ("Je t’aimerai"), social injustice ("C’est normal"), the inequality of the sexes ("Patriarcat") and racism ("Y' a du lard"). However, she also knew how to make light of herself ("L'Auberge (Révolution)").
Because they sail among pop, folk, electro and world music, the albums L’incendie and Vous et nous by the Areski-Fontaine duo figure among the most unclassifiable records of the French scene. Almost thirty years later, the international audience of these LPs (since re-edited for CD) is comparable to that of the cult record Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier, notably due to the enthusiastic remarks made by members of the band Sonic Youth in the Anglo-Saxon press.
1980–1990
The 1980s were a period of silence, musically speaking, for Brigitte Fontaine and her partner Areski Belkacem. Far from the recording studio, she devoted herself to writing and the theatre. Always active, she appeared onstage in Quebec, she performed her play Acte 2 in a grand tour of the French-speaking world, interpreted Les Bonnes by Jean Genet in Paris, and published a novel (Paso doble) as well as a collection of short stories (Nouvelles de l’exil). In 1984, she recorded a single ("Les Filles d’aujourd’hui").
After having given a series of concerts in Tokyo and other large Japanese cities, she had to wait about five years for a French company to distribute her new album French Corazon (written and composed in 1984 but released in 1988 to Japan). Having been broadcast notably on French television, the video for the single "Le Nougat", directed by comics artist Olivia Tele Clavel, prepared the public for the big return of the singer to the French stage which commenced with a concert in 1993 at the Bataclan.
1990–2001
In the 1990s, Brigitte Fontaine moved closer to the musical worlds of Björk and Massive Attack by testing new, more electric musical forms and, especially, more electronic forms than before. Her lyrics mark a return to a more classical, versified form. The release of her album Genre humain, in 1995, met with great success (more so on the part of the critics than the general public) with surprising titles like "Conne" (produced by Étienne Daho), lyric titles like "La Femme à barbe" (produced by Les Valentins), and poetic ones like "Il se mêle à tout ça" (produced by Yann Cortella and Areski Belkcem).
In 1997, while she published a new novel (La Limonade bleue), she recorded Les Palaces and its landmark track "Ah que la vie est belle!". The album, very well-received by the press, is enriched by the collaboration of Areski Belkacem, Jacques Higelin and Alain Bashung.
2001 – present
Her albums Kékéland (2001) and Rue Saint-Louis en l'île (2004) benefited from prestigious collaborations with artists such as Noir désir (with whom she also co-wrote and recorded the 23-minute track L'Europe on des Visages des Figures), Sonic Youth, Archie Shepp, - M-, Gotan Project, Zebda, etc. In 2005, after having given a series of concerts with her usual band (but also with La Compagnie des musiques à ouïr), she published a new novel, La Bête curieuse, whose erotic ambiance somewhat foretold the tonality of her sixteenth album, Libido (2006). This new album renewed her concerts with a lively energy and gave them a very "baroque 'n' roll" ambiance, in which Teresa of Avila, Sufis, Hollywood films, and Melody Nelson are invoked.
In October 2006, Fontaine appeared at the Barbican Centre in London along with Jarvis Cocker, Badly Drawn Boy and other English artists, for the first public interpretation of the mythic "Histoire de Melody Nelson". In January 2007, she appeared onstage with graphic novelist Blutch at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. On 29 March 2007, she invested in the Olympia music hall, supported by her friends Jacno, Arthur H, Christophe, Anaïs, Jacques Higelin, Maya Barsony and Jean-Claude Vannier. In April, she played at the Printemps de Bourges music festival and participated in her Québécois admirer Pierre Lapointe's concert for a duo of "La symphonie pastorale". After having given a series of intimate concerts all through September on a barge anchored under the Pont des Arts on the Seine river in Paris, Fontaine toured throughout France. Between two concerts, she went into the studio with Olivia Ruiz to record a new single, "Partir ou rester", for which she wrote the lyrics.
In February 2008, she published a new novel, Travellings, published by Flammarion, while Benoît Mouchart devoted a monograph to her ("Brigitte Fontaine, intérieur/extérieur"), published by Panama. A new album titled Prohibition and produced by Ivor Guest including collaborations with Grace Jones and Philippe Katerine is programmed for a release in the fall of 2009. The lyrics of this new work mark the return of Brigitte Fontaine to an anti-authority political position.
In March 2011 Polydor announced that a new album, also produced by Ivor Guest, is to be released on the 23 May. It is entitled L'un n'empêche pas l'autre, and consists of duets with Grace Jones, Alain Souchon, , Bertrand Cantat, Arno, Emmanuelle Seigner, Christophe, Jacques Higelin and Areski Belkacem. It also contains some new tracks, including 'Dancefloor' (Feat. Grace Jones), which Polydor uploaded on their site.
Albums
12 chansons d'avant le déluge (with Jacques Higelin and Jimmy Walter), Productions Jacques Canetti, 196515 chansons d'avant le déluge (with Jacques Higelin and Michel Colombier), Productions Jacques Canetti, 1966Brigitte Fontaine est folle (with Jean-Claude Vannier), Saravah, 1968Comme à la radio (with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Areski Belkacem), Saravah, 1969Brigitte Fontaine (with Areski Belkacem, Julie Dassin and Jacques Higelin), Saravah, 1972Je ne connais pas cet homme (with Areski Belkacem and Antoine Duhamel), Saravah, 1973L'Incendie (with Areski Belkacem), Byg Records, 1974Le Bonheur (with Areski Belkacem), Saravah, 1975Vous et Nous (with Areski Belkacem, Jean-Philippe Rykiel and Antoine Duhamel), Saravah, 1977Les églantines sont peut-être formidables (with Areski Belkacem), RCA-Saravah, 1979French corazon (with Areski Belkacem and Jean-Philippe Rykiel), Midi/EMI, 1988Genre humain (with Areski Belkacem, Étienne Daho and Les Valentins), Virgin, 1995Les palaces (with Areski Belkacem and Alain Bashung), Virgin, 1997Morceaux de choix, compilation, Virgin, 1999Kékéland (with Areski Belkacem, Jean-Claude Vannier, Sonic Youth, -M-, Noir Désir, Ginger Ale, Lou and Placido, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Jean-Philippe Rykiel, Georges Moustaki, Les Valentins and Archie Shepp), Virgin, 2001Rue Saint Louis en l'île (with Areski Belkacem, -M-, Didier Malherbe, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Zebda, Daniel Mille and Gotan Project), Virgin, 2004Libido (with Jean-Claude Vannier, -M-, Jean Efflam Bavouzet and Areski Belkacem), Polydor, 2006. The album included the song Mister Mystère, later re-used as the title track to -M-'s album Mister MystèreProhibition (with Areski Belkacem, Ivor Guest, Grace Jones and Philippe Katerine), Polydor, 2009L'un n'empêche pas l'autre (with Areski Belkacem, Ivor Guest, Grace Jones, Arno, Jacques Higelin, Emmanuelle Seigner, Alain Souchon, -M-, Bertrand Cantat, Christophe and Richard Galliano, Polydor, 2011Other records/Participations
"Le goudron" / "Les beaux animaux", Saravah, 1969"Quand tous les ghettos brûleront, ça va faire un hit", with Areski Belkacem and Jean-Claude Vannier, Byg Records, 1974"Les filles d'aujourd'hui", Carrère-Celluloïd, 1984 (other version in Kékéland, 2001)"Amore 529" in Un Drame Musical Instantané / Opération Blow-up, collective album, 1992"Supermarket", single, Virgin, 1995"On ne tue pas son prochain" in Route Manset, collective tribute to Gérard Manset, 1996"La caravane" (music by Duke Ellington) in Jazz à Saint-Germain, collective album, 1997 (and in Morceaux de choix, 1999)"Calimero", single with Stereolab, 1998"Dressing", single, Virgin, 1999 (and in Morceaux de choix, 1999)"Underture", inédit with Sonic Youth, Virgin, 2000"Lady Macbeth", inédit with Sonic Youth, Virgin, 2000"L'Europe", with Bertrand Cantat, in Des visages des figures, album by Noir Désir, 2001"Comme à la radio" and "J'ai 26 ans" (english versions of the sixties) in Vintage de choix, compilation, Virgin, 2001"Âme te souvient-il ?" in Avec Léo, collective tribute to Léo Ferré, 2003"L'Homme à la moto" in L'Hymne à la môme, collective tribute to Édith Piaf , 2003 (and in Rue Saint-Louis en l'île, 2004)"Fine mouche", with Khan, in Disko-Cabine, collective album, 2005"Red Light" in Les tremblements s'immobilisent, album by Karkwa, 2005 (and together, on stage, at the festival Les Vieilles Charrues, Carhaix, 2006)"Partir ou rester", duet with Olivia Ruiz, Polydor, 2007"La beuglante" in Femme d'extérieur, album by Maya Barsony, 2008"Bamako" in , album by Turzi, 2009"Je Vous Salue Marie" in Jacno Future, collective tribute to Jacno, 2011,Other voices
- in studio
Christine Sèvres : "Les dieux sont dingues" in Christine Sèvres, CBS, 1968Christine Sèvres : "Maman, j'ai peur", "Le beau cancer" and "Comme Rimbaud", CBS, 1970Étienne Daho : "Dommage que tu sois mort" in Urgence, collective album, Virgin, 1992Philippe Katerine : "La vache enragée" in Morceaux Choisis by The Recyclers, Rectangle, 1997Faun Fables : "Eternal" (english version of "Éternelle") in Family Album, Drag City Records, 2004Étienne Daho and Jane Birkin : "La grippe" in Rendez-vous by Jane Birkin, EMI Music, 2004Françoise Hardy and Rodolphe Burger : "Cet enfant que je t'avais fait" in Parenthèses by Françoise Hardy, EMI Music, 2006Matthieu Chedid : "Mister Mystère" in Mister Mystère, 2009Emmanuelle Seigner : "Quand tu n'es pas là" in Dingue, Columbia, 2010Stereo Total : "Barbe à papa" in Baby ouh !, 2010Aurelia : "Vous et nous" in The Hour Of The Wolf, 2010Johnny Hallyday : "Tanagra" in Jamais seul, 2011Stefie Shock : "Dévaste-moi" in La Mécanique de l'amour, 2011- on stage
Dominique A : "Les étoiles et les cochons"Arthur H : "Hollywood"Christophe : "Hollywood"Pierre Lapointe : "La symphonie pastorale"Maya Barsony : "Veuve Clicquot"Matthieu Chedid et Johnny Hallyday : « Tanagra »
