Henry Miller

Yann Tiersen

Review: Yann Tiersen’s Skyline

Yann Tiersen: Skyline (Anti-, 4/17/12)

“Another Shore”

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French composer Yann Tiersen always has taken darker paths — even the Amelie soundtrack maintained a certain melancholy. His solo albums are more overt. On 2010 album Dust Lane, he appropriated a stark passage from Henry Miller’s The Rosy Crucifixion. On his latest, Skyline (finally released in the United States), he takes the tropes of horror films and makes music out of it — at least on “Exit 5 Block 20,” a track that begins with brutal howls­ that only subside for a short portion of the song.

Yann Tiersen to release next studio album on Anti-

Multi-instrumentalist / composer Yann Tiersen won acclaim for his beautiful score in the hit French film Amelie. Though the film features pop-based rolling melodies, it was a bit of a departure from his early work, which blended classical, folk, and post-punk sounds. Tiersen’s new album returns to that earlier style, employing a wide array of instruments and spanning many genres.

The result of a two-year creative process, Dustlane will be released on October 12 by Anti-, which put out Sage Francis‘ Li(f)e (featuring Tiersen’s collaboration on “The Best of Times”). Tiersen plays classical instruments like acoustic guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, and banjo, while adding harder sounds with toy drums, electric guitars, bass, and synthesizers. Lofty vocal choruses contrast dramatic narration by Matt Elliot (Mogwai, Blonde Redhead).