LE PANNIER DE VANNIER

FOUR DISQUES D’AWE THAT SHOWCASE A MASTER AT WORK.

Serge Gainsbourg HISTOIRE DE MELODY NELSON (Philips, 1971)

Although acknowledged as Gainsbourg’s masterpiece, nothing here would work without Vannier’s romantic and sinister string arrangements, his eerie modal progressions, or his minimalist use of an English rock quartet. “Everything is reduced,” says Vannier. “The choruses only play one note, an E. Nothing is extraneous. I hate useless things.”

Jean-Claude Vannier L’ENFANT ASSASSIN DES MOUCHES (Suzelle, 1972)

Vannier’s sonic autobiography, centred around a morbid child composing symphonies from household noises, this astonishing ballet mécanique finds the composer at his most free, mixing in sleazy funk minimalism with Middle Eastern drones, Morriconestyle strings, flute, accordion, clacking billiard balls, celestial choirs and a tolling church bell.

Jean-Claude Vannier JEAN-CLAUDE VANNIER [AKA MIMI, MIMI, MIMI]

(Warner Bros, 1975)

If Brigitte Fontaine Est… Folle marked the beginning of a new strain of French progressive pop, then this solo Vannier effort is its deliberate full stop. Post L’Enfant…, Vannier stripped everything down to the essentials: melancholy, existential piano ballads that foregrounded his fragile vocals and mastery of the pop form.

Jean-Claude Vannier L’ORCHESTRE D’ENFANTS (Sounds, 2007)

Reminiscent of both Satie’s Enfantines and Carl Orff’s Schulwerk, Vannier assembled a full orchestra and choir of children, aged eight to 14, to play compositions of delicate beauty and skittish complexity. “I like it very much,” says Vannier. “When I played it to my friends, no one could believe it was actually children playing.”