Yann Tiersen

Eusa

French composer’s solo piano études pay homage to his Breton homeland.

Despite a reputation still somewhat queered by the chocolate box prettiness of his soundtrack to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, Yann Tiersen has actually spent the last decade and a half distancing himself from that film’s jaunty musette waltzes, latterly turning out angular, full-band art-rock albums that intimate Radiohead-like ambition more readily than nostalgic Montmartre whimsy. Eusa is something else altogether, a series of delicate piano instrumentals interspersed with subtly manipulated rural field recordings, inspired by, and named after, locations on Ushant (‘Eusa’ in the Breton language), Tiersen’s island home. Reflective but brimming with aching melody, earworm offerings like the stately Porz Goret, or Yuzin, with its cascading arpeggios, make a virtue of simplicity – a poignancy always keeping music-box banality at bay. Fans of Tiersen’s sparer soundtracks, especially his piano score for Pierre Marcel’s 2008 Tabarly documentary, should dive in.