YANN TIERSEN plays the Phoenix Tuesday (February 22). See listing. Rating: NNN
French composer Yann Tiersen is best known for his film soundtracks for Amélie and Good Bye Lenin!, but he’s been making genre-defying records since 1995.
Dust Lane, his sixth studio album and first for Anti-, continues to mine disparate sources to mostly discomfiting ends. Using a broad palette of instrumentation – analog synthesizers, toys, piano, mandolin – Tiersen’s music has a cinematic quality, each song its own journey on an album that explores themes of life and mortality.
While much of Dust Lane is moody and introspective, it ends with Fuck Me, a duet with Gaëlle Kerrien that’s reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s more playful songs. It’s a spirited end to a thought-provoking release.
Top track: Fuck Me
