Les grands espaces

In limited edition

Like the previous album, Les grands espaces was recorded in the style of pop folk and country, and together with the original compositions contains cover versions and French adaptations of American songs. The album was produced by singer Benjamin Biolet ^{[K 1]} , who wrote the song Voulez-vous l'amour to him ? , and together with Isabelle Boulet performed a cover version of the famous hit Summer Wine . A duet with Dolly Parton recorded the song True Blue from the repertoire of this singer.

According to Isabel Boulet, the purpose of this album was to create an alchemical alloy of American country and the great French variety show ( Notre but était de créer l'alchimie entre country américaine et grande variété ) ^[2] . According to the columnist Le Figaro , such attempts, which were repeatedly made in the past by francophone artists, usually failed, but the creative duo Boulet and Biolet as a whole managed to achieve some success. In France, the disc was coolly received by musical snobs, who did not miss the chance to pironyonize over the similarity of the names of the singer and producer, and the fact that Biolet sings in English with a French accent. He received a rather poor press, which the producer explained by the fact that people in Europe confuse country and western ^[2] (among other things, Les grands espaces - the French name for the classic western Bill Wyler The Big Country (“ Big Country ”).

The Montreal biannual Voir this time supported the release. One of the subtitles of the article was called directly - "Death to snobbery." Regarding reproaches for mixing the “left” (popular) Boulet style with his own, more intellectual one, Benjamin Biolet stated that he did not recognize this caste division of music into left and right. “We play the music of our dreams and try to achieve this dream all the time. For some individuals, Les grands espaces will turn out to be a very left-wing drive, but that will not prevent it from becoming popular. ” ^[3]

I really love her, this music. I listened to Johnny Cash even before I knew that it was country. I absolutely do not feel the need to Europeanize the disk. But, you see, marketers in France are asking us to remove the word “country” so that the album can be presented.

- Isabelle Boulay, Benjamin Biolay: Passer à l'ouest // Voir, 3.11.2011

At the same time, the creators of the album were well aware of the complexity of the task, since, according to Bjole, for most French people the idea of ​​country is limited to Eddie Mitchell , and young people love Bonnie Prince Billy , but barely know about Willy Nelson ^[3] .

According to the singer, the difference in the “registers” did not prevent their cooperation, since she does not avoid intellectual music, but sometimes she wants things easier. “For me, Julien Claire and Alain Bashung are artists of the same level who simply express themselves in different ways” ^[3] .

Bad reviews did not prevent the success of the album, which became gold in Canada and platinum in France ^[4] . In 2012, the song Fin octobre, début novembre was nominated for the Felix Prize in the category of the most popular song ^[5] , and the concert performance of the album was nominated for the performance of the year ^[6] .

• Isabelle Boulay - Les Grands Espaces (Fr.) . Audiogram. Date of treatment June 29, 2016.
• Isabelle Boulay: le meilleur d'Isabelle (Fr.) . La Presse (12.11.2011). Date of treatment June 29, 2016.
• Les grands espaces (fr.) . Site officiel. Date of treatment June 29, 2016.
• Isabelle Boulay - Les grands espaces - Teaser (vidéo) (French) . Site officiel. Date of treatment June 29, 2016.
• "Les grands espaces" Teaser # 2 (vidéo) (Fr.) . Site officiel. Date of treatment June 29, 2016.