Thiersen, Jan

Yann Thiersen was born in Brest . It has Belgian and Norwegian roots. When he was 3 years old, his family moved to Rennes , where he stayed until 22 years old. At 23 he moved to live in Paris , and from 2003 to this day, Yann lives on the island of Wessan .

Before a career

In 1976, when he was 6 years old, Yann was sent to study at the “National Conservatory of the City of Rennes,” in the class of piano and solfeggio . In 1977, a violin was added to these two classes. In 1983, Thiersen, having received certificates with honors, purposely broke his violin. Also, at the age of 14, he dropped out of school to play music. At that time, he had an electric guitar . The young musician began to play in rock bands , including his own. In 1986, he decided to resume teaching violin and entered the Boulogne-sur-Mer National Conservatory. In 1993, already in Rennes, he switched to the direction of the orchestra, where he never finished his studies.

When his group broke up, instead of looking for new musicians, he bought a cheap mixing console , tape recorder and began to record solos on a synthesizer , sampler and drum machine , inspired by the cuts of old records. But once he thought that instead of spending days in research and listening to tons of recordings, you can use the violin to find the right sound. In the summer of 1993, Yann stayed in his apartment recording music only on the guitar , violin and accordion , guided not by the classical canon, but by intuition and his vision of “musical anarchy”. ^[one]

By the end of summer, Yann recorded over 40 tracks that will make up most of his first two albums.

Career start

On June 13, 1995, a debut album entitled “ La valse des monstres ” was released. This is actually a collection of plays written for theatrical productions such as Freaks (first 11 tracks) and Le Tambourin de soie (last 6 pieces).

In April 1996, the second album "Rue des Cascades" was released , consisting of 20 plays, already written as "A series of personal moments ...". Rue des Cascades is a street in the 20th district of Paris , near which Jannes lived. In addition to instrumental pieces, the vocals of assistant Janne, Claire Pische, were added here. Her vocals are found in such compositions as “Rue des Cascades” and “Naomi”.

In 1997, due to the fact that Yann could not work on a new album in Paris , he went to the island of Wessan ^[2] (which he had visited since early childhood). There he rented a house, began to compose and record. Already in December, Yann performed at the Transmusicales des Rennes festival, specially for which he released a mini-album of 6 plays, called “Avant La chute”. The album was sold only in France and was released in small print runs. In addition, Yann played on the streets in the suburbs of Rennes for a week. ^[3]

In 1998, from ready-made materials in 1997, Yann released an album that gave him significant success in his homeland. Inspired by the lighthouse, which was not far from the house he rented, he decided to name the album by the name " Le Phare ". ^[2] Starting from this album, Yann began collaborating with the French musician Dominic Anet, whose vocals we hear on the tracks “Monochrome” and “Les Bras de Mer”. Claire Pichet performed the vocals in “La Rupture”, and the vocals of Jann himself we first heard in the last track “L'Effondrement”.

Yann gave several concerts in France . Concert versions of multi-instrumental pieces often differed from studio ones. For example, in Rue des Cascades, the studio version of which consisted of a harpsichord , piano , violin and accordion , it became limited to the piano and accordion, which Jann played at the same time to surprise the audience, although he claimed that playing two instruments at once was not at all difficult. ^[2]

In 1998, along with compositions for the album Le Phare, Yann wrote the soundtrack for the short film Le Cyclope de la mer.

For the film by Eric Zonk “ La Vie rêvée des anges ” 3 plays were written, but only one was played in the film. In the end, Yann released a CD single from these plays of the same name. ^[four]

Since the end of 1998, Jann began collaborating with The Married Monk and in 1999 they released the album Tout est calme .

On December 2, 1998, Thiersen invited several musicians to his concert, such as Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy, Bertrand Kant of Noir Désir, Têtes Raides, etc. This concert was recorded during the radio show C'est Lenoir. " Soon, in 1999, Yann from these recordings released his first live album, “Black Session”.

At the end of 1999, Yann began a creative crisis, which lasted all 2000.

World famous

In 2001, the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in search of music for his upcoming film, accidentally heard the music of Jann Thiersen in the car of his assistant, and, impressed, bought up all his CDs. Jean-Pierre offered to work Janne on the soundtrack for his film. Thiersen agreed.

People mistakenly believe that all plays are written specifically for the film, but this is not so. For the film, Yann composed only 3 variations of one play (“La valse d'Amelie”) and 2 more tracks (“La redécouverte” and “L'autre valse d'Amélie”). The rest of the plays were already ready, as they were taken from the first three albums.

In the same year, after the release of the film and album " Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain ", Yann gained fame all over the world.

Following the soundtrack, Thiersen released the album " L'Absente ", but the popularity of "Amelie" overshadowed him, and he went unnoticed for a long time.

In 2002, Yann gave many speeches. He recorded one of them as a live album by publishing it under the name “C'etait ici”. At the end of that year, German director Wolfgang Becker, looking at the popularity of the soundtrack for Amelie, invited Jann to record the soundtrack for his new film. Yann agreed again, and unlike the Amelie album, he wrote all the plays specifically for the film. In 2003, the album “Goodbye Lenin!” Was released, and in 2004 the film itself, which also gave success.

After the album “Goodbye Lenin!” Yann, in collaboration with Shannon Wright, released a joint album, “Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright”, in 2004.

In 2005, Yann again went to the island of Wessan. There he prepared material for a new album and recorded it. We can see the process of recording the album in the La Traversée documentary.

In 2006, Yann went on a big tour, which was subsequently released as a live album called “On Tour”. Concerts were also filmed, and were released on DVD of the same name.

After the tour, in 2008 Thiersen wrote the music for the documentary Tabarly .

In 2009, Yann began touring the upcoming Dust Lane album.

2010 - 2016

Instrumental music bothered Tiersen, he began experimenting with synthesizers, electric guitars and subsequently recorded his album “Dust Lane”. The music of the album became very unusual, some fans began to ask about returning to the usual multi-instrumental music, but Yann did not like this idea.

In 2013, the Skyline album was released, which Yann recorded with his group, the album was also different from the rest.

In 2014, the Infinity album was released, it was positively approved by critics. Unlike previous albums, there is not a single song written in French in Infinity. They are written in English , Faroe , Icelandic and Breton . In an interview for Port Magazine, the musician said that he thus expressed his recognition of the Breton culture , which is native to the composer.

In 2015-2016, Yann worked on the new album “EUSA”, which he completely devoted to the island of Wessan, on which he lives. The album, according to the composer, is a musical map of the island. All the music on the album is played on the piano , accompanied by the sounds of the island's nature.

In the period from 2016 to 2018, Tiersen gave concerts on the ninth album.

2017 - Our Time

Finishing a tour of the EUSA album, Yann is working on completing the construction of his new studio, AN ESKAL. In the summer of 2018, he releases an EP album, consisting of 2 plays, which Thiersen wrote back in 2015, but lost in his notebook. This mini-album, entitled "The Lost Notebook - EUSA" was the first record in the new studio.

In August, the musician began recording a new album, for which he visited the Faroe Islands in 2017 to find material and collaborate with musicians.

In the meantime, on October 12, 2018, Thiersen released the single "HENT" containing the full version of all the transitions "hent" from the ninth album, mixed with improvisations.

October 16 made the announcement of the new album "ALL" (from Breton - "Other"). Which will be released on February 15, 2019.

Privacy

From 2001 to 2002 he was married to the Belgian actress Natasha Rainier ^[5]

In 2016, Yann Thiersen married Emily Quinkis ^[6]

Studio Albums

• 1995 - La Valse des Monstres
• 1996 - Rue des cascades
• 1998 - Le Phare
• 1999 - Tout est calme
• 2001 - L'Absente
• 2005 - Les Retrouvailles
• 2010 - Dust Lane
• 2011 - Skyline
• 2014 - ∞ (Infinity)
• 2016 - EUSA
• 2019 - ALL

Mini Albums / Singles

• 1996 - Rue des Cascades (EP)
• 1996 - La vie rêvée des anges (EP)
• 1997 - Avant la Chute (EP)
• 2003 - On aime, on adie (EP)
• 2010 - Palestine (EP)
• 2011 - Monumets (EP
• 2018 - The Lost Notebook (EP)

Collaborations

• 1998 - Bästard ~ Tiersen
• 2004 - Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright
• 2010 - The Dark Age of Love

Live Albums

• 1998 - 1st Black Session (Solo)
• 1999 - 2nd Black Session & Friends

• 2002 - C'était ici
• 2006 - On Tour
• 2014 - Live at London

Soundtracks

• 1998 - Le Cyclope de la Mer
• 2001 - Amélie
• 2003 - Good bye, Lenin!
• 2008 - Tabarly

• 2016 - Ouragan

• The official website of Jan Thiersen