Customer Reviews

Les Chants d'Eros

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It is only halfway through the year as yet...but unless Carol Thompson, or Dougie MacLean release a new album this year (and it would have to be a darn good one at that), and unless Rich Mullins comes back from the grave to bequeath more music upon us...then I have to say that without a doubt "Les Chants d' Eros" will be the best new CD I listen to this year.

First of all...Custer LaRue is still my favorite female singer. However, she must now share the title with Claire Gignac. "A vortex of musical passion" (from the excellent liner notes) indeed! If I handed out a vocal artist of the year award, I would have to give it to Mrs. Gignac for this album. Her singing is beautiful on this disc...it is hard to imagine one artist being capable of the emotional range necessary for songs like: "Est-ce ma faute a moi?"; "L'oie blessee"; and "La complainte de la Seine"--much less the other thirteen songs here.

Speaking of songs...let me just take a minute to say that one of the biggest attractions that this recording holds is the variety of texts that are interpreted. Pieces written by Chretien de Troyes, Christine de Pisan and Victor Hugo stand side by side with pieces by Kurt Weill and Charles Baudelaire.

All the songs are given fresh and startling interpretations by the Singer and the musicians on this disc. Instead of the usual, rather samey sounding piano in the background of most "songs" discs, Gignac is backed by ingenious string settings. Guitars, mandolins, violins, and even a psaltery are used. One piece is actually spoken word over instrumentation...this, like every other aspect of "Les Chants d' Eros" blows me away.

I give "Les Chants d' Eros" my highest recommendation. Even if this type of music is not usually your cup of tea, I strongly urge you to get a copy. You will not be disappointed.

I think I've always liked the idea of Piaf better than the actuality. Here I risk Francophile wrath, but she seemed a little too mannered in her anguish and diffidence. Claire Gignac is a different story. Out Piaf-ing Piaf in "Hymne a l'amour," she mixes smoldering intensity with an entirely believable passion as she surveys a range of love songs that spans many centuries. From a spare setting (her own) of lyrics by Arthurian balladeer Chretien de Troyes to a modern, Leo Ferre take on a Beaudelaire lyric, it's a brilliantly chosen program that's rendered amidst a jazz/cabaret combo with shades of the old Reinhardt-Grappelli collaborations. These performances don't just draw you in -- they engulf you, going straight to the heart. Gignac's voice is husky and very expressive, with a kind of "oh, honey, you don't want to know" quality to the storytelling that lurks behind these songs. Open yourself up to this recording and it'll pack a "Winterreise"-like punch.