Yann Tiersen (born 23 June 1970) is a French musician.

[1][2] His musical career is split between studio albums, collaborations and film soundtracks. His music involves a large variety of instruments; primarily the guitar, synthesizer or violin together with instruments like the melodica, xylophone, toy piano, harpsichord, accordion and typewriter. Tiersen is often mistaken for a composer of soundtracks, himself saying "I'm not a composer and I really don't have a classical background",[3] but his real focus is on touring and studio albums which just happen to often be suitable for film. His most famous soundtrack for the film Amlie was primarily made up of tracks taken from his first four studio albums.[4] Contents [hide]

1 Biography and career o 1.1 The early years: 19701992 o 1.2 Debut and national acclaim: 19932000 o 1.3 Amlie and global recognition: 20012009 o 1.4 Dust Lane and Skyline: 2010present 2 Music o 2.1 Styles and instruments o 2.2 Film scores o 2.3 Collaborations o 2.4 Charity work 3 Discography o 3.1 Studio albums o 3.2 Soundtracks o 3.3 Live albums o 3.4 Singles and EPs o 3.5 Collaborations o 3.6 Contributions o 3.7 DVDs 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links Biography and career[edit] The early years: 19701992[edit] Yann Tiersen was born in Brest in the Finistre dpartement in Brittany in northwestern France, in 1970, into a French family of Belgianand Norwegian origins.[5] He started learning piano at the age of four, violin at the age of six, and received classical training at several musical academies, including those in Rennes, Nantes, and Boulogne.[6] In the early 1980s when he was a teenager he was influenced by the punk subculture, and bands like The Stooges and Joy Division.[7] In 1983, at the age of 13, he broke his violin, bought an electric guitar, and formed a rock band. Tiersen was then living in Rennes, and this turned out to be the perfect place for his musical career. In fact, Rennes is home to the three-day music festival Rencontres Trans Musicales, held annually in December, giving him the opportunity to see acts like Nirvana, Einstrzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Cramps, Television, and Suicide. A few years later, when his band broke up, Tiersen bought a cheap mixing desk, an 8track reel-to-reel audio tape recording, and started recording music solo with a synthesizer, a sampler, and a drum machine.[8] Debut and national acclaim: 19932000[edit] Main articles: La Valse des monstres, Rue des cascades, and Le Phare Lets live in an enormous world of sound we can use randomly, with no rules at all. Lets play with sound, forget all knowledge and instrumental skills, and just use instinct the same way punk did. Yann Tiersen[8] Before releasing film scores under his own name, Tiersen recorded background music for a number of plays and short films. In the summer of 1993, Tiersen stayed in his apartment, recording music alone with an electric guitar, a violin, and an accordion, guided by his vision of a musical anarchy. By the end of that summer, Tiersen had recorded over forty tracks, which would form most of his first two albums. Tiersen's debut album, La Valse des monstres, limited to 1,000 copies only, was released in June 1995 by independent record label Sine Terra Firma, and then it was reissued by Nancy-based record label Ici d'ailleurs in 1998 as the second album of its catalogue.[9][10] The 17-track album was inspired by and written for the theatrical adaptations of Tod Browning's 1932 cult classic Freaks, and Yukio Mishima's 1955 version of Noh play The Damask Drum.[11] One year later, in April 1996, he released Rue des cascades, a collection of short pieces recorded with toy piano, harpsichord, violin, accordion, and mandolin.[12][13] The title track, sung by French soloist singer Claire Pichet, was used the following year for the Palme d'Or nominated French drama film The Dreamlife of Angels,[14] and several tracks received greater exposure five years later when they were featured on the soundtrack to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amlie.[8] Tiersen played almost all the instruments both in the

studio and in concert, and this gave him a theatrical appeal as a one-man show, which allowed him to perform, among others, at the 1996 edition of the Avignon Festival, the oldest extant festival in France and one of the world's greatest.[15] I was amazed how the rays of lights from the lighthouse revealed some hidden details of the land, how we can rediscover something we have everyday, just in front of us, by a light pointing on it. Yann Tiersen[8] Tiersen rose to domestic fame upon the release of his third studio album, Le Phare(English: The Light House) in 1998. The album was recorded in a self-imposed seclusion on the isle of Ushant (Breton: Enez Eusa, French: Ouessant) at the south-western end of the English Channel which marks the north-westernmost point of territorial France, where Tiersen spent two months living in a rented house. At night, he watched the Phare du Creach (English: Kreac'h or Crac'h lighthouse), one of the most powerful lighthouse in the world, and was fascinated by the stunning scenery repeated every night. Le Phare, which featured Claire Pichet, French singer and songwriter Dominique A, and French drummer and percussionist Sacha Toorop,[16][17] sold over 160,000 copies, confirming Tiersen's status as one of the most innovative artists of his generation and commencing a run of successful albums.[8] Three songs from this album, "La Dispute", "La Noyee", and "Sur le fil" were used later for the soundtrack of Amlie, while "L'Homme aux bras ballants", written and composed by Dominique A, was also the soundtrack to Laurent Gorgiard's 1997 short animation film of the same title. Its single, "Monochrome", sung by Dominique A, was a radio hit and propelled the album. Le Phare was his first album to chart climbing to number 50 in the French Albums Chart.[18] In that period Tiersen provided a new arrangement and played strings, vibraphone, bell, mandolin, electric guitar, and bass guitar for the song " ton toile" by French rock band Noir Dsir on their 1998 remix album One Trip/One Noise,[19] recorded background music for the award-winning and multi-nominated film The Dreamlife of Angels (French: La Vie rve des anges),[14][20] for Andr Tchin's Alice et Martin, released in 1998, and Christine Carrire's Qui plume la lune?, released in 1999, and also recorded Bstard ~ Yann Tiersen, a 3-track extended play released in 1998 in collaboration with French electronic rock band Bstard, and his first live album, Black Session: Yann Tiersen. The live album was recorded on 2 December 1998 as the opening act of the Rencontres Trans Musicales in the Salle Serreau at the Thtre National de Bretagne in Rennes, for the C'est Lenoir show broadcast on the French public radio stationFrance Inter. The album, which features Northern Irish singer, songwriter, and frontman of the chamber pop group The Divine ComedyNeil Hannon, singer and songwriter Bertrand Cantat of Noir Dsir, singer and illustrator Franoiz Breut, anglophone French rock bandThe Married Monk (Christian Quermalet, Philippe Lebruman, Etienne Jaumet, Nicolas Courret), French folk rock group Ttes Raides(Christian Olivier, Grgoire Simon, Pascal Olivier, AnneGalle Bisquay, Serge Bgout, Jean-Luc Millot, and Edith Bgou), the string quartet Quatuor cordes, guitarist and composer Olivier Mellano, and author Mathieu Boogaerts, as well as his usual collaborators and friends, Claire Pichet and Dominique A, was recorded by France International, mastered by Radio France, and released in CD format one year later on 2 November 1999.[21] In 1999, Tiersen with The Married Monk, Claire Pichet, and Olivier Mellano, released his first collaboration album, Tout est calme. The 26 minutes, 10 tracks mini album peaked at number 45 on the French Albums Chart.[18][22] The album produced one single, "Les Grandes mares", and Tiersen also featured on The Divine Comedy's single "Gin Soaked Boy" released on that same year, on three tracks for Franoiz Breut's second studio album Vingt Trente Mille Jours (English: Twenty to Thirty Thousand Days), and on Ttes Raides' Gratte-poil, both released in 2000. Amlie and global recognition: 20012009[edit] Main articles: Amlie (soundtrack), L'Absente, and Les Retrouvailles The hard part was making a selection, because all his tracks worked with the film's images! Jean-Pierre Jeunet[23] Tiersen remained relatively unknown outside France until the release of his score for the acclaimed film Amlie (Original French title: Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amlie Poulain, English: The Fabulous Destiny of Amlie Poulain) in 2001. French film director JeanPierre Jeunet had something else in mind for the film score, but one day one of his production assistants put on a CD of Tiersen, and the director found it absolutely superb. Jeunet bought all of Tiersen's albums, and then contacted him to see if the Breton composer was interested in writing the film score forAmlie. In two weeks, Tiersen composed nineteen pieces for the film and also allowed the production to take anything they wanted from his other records.[23] Amlie received great critical acclaim and was a box-office success. The film went on to win the Best Film award at the European Film Awards, four Csar Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, two BAFTA Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated for five Academy Awards. The soundtrack was a mixture of both new and previously released material, and Tiersen was also the recipient of the Csar Award for Best Music Written for a Film, and of the World Soundtrack Academy award. The soundtrack album charted in many countries, including the number one position on the French Albums Chart.[2][24] While he was writing the film score for Amlie Tiersen was also preparing his fifth studio album L'Absente.[2] The album was characterized by several contributions including 35-member Ensemble Orchestral Synaxis conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne, viola player Bertrand Lambert, violinists Yann Bisquay and Sophie Naboulay, Natacha Rgnier, and saxophonist Grgoire Simon, and long-time collaborators Dominique A, Christine Ott, Lisa Germano, Neil Hannon, Ttes Raides, Christian Quermalet, Marc Sens, and Sacha Toorop.[25][26] The album, which was released on 5 June 2001 through EMI France, was preceded by two promotional singles for "A quai" and "Bagatelle" respectively. Tiersen provided strings and vibraphone to two tracks, "Roma Amor" and "Holidays", featured onR/O/C/K/Y, third studio album by The Married Monk. At this time he was married to Belgian actress Natacha Rgnier, co-star of The Dreamlife of Angels. Rgnier become a singer and Tiersen wrote three songs for her including his arrangement of Georges Brassens' "Le Parapluie", a song featured on the tribute albumLes Oiseaux de passage, released in 2001. That same year they went on tour in France and abroad. They have a daughter, Lise, born in 2002, but they have since been divorced.[27] In this period, Tiersen also took his music out around the world, playing shows with a full orchestra and an amplified string quartet.[8] On 15, 16, and 17 February 2002, Tiersen with many of the collaborators who participated in the recording sessions for L'Absente plus Claire Pichet, violinists Nicholas Stevens and Renaud

Lhoest, bassist Jean-Franois Assy, viola player Olivier Tilkin, and uilleann pipes, bagpipes, and low whistle player Ronan Le Bars, performed live at the Cit de la Musique(English: City of Music) in Paris. Part of these three concerts went on to form Tiersen's second live album C'tait ici (English: It Was Here), which was released through EMI France on 30 September 2002.[28][29] Tiersen's skills as a composer of film scores were much in demand, and the soundtrack for Amlie was soon followed by the film scorefor Good Bye, Lenin!, a 2003 German tragicomedy film directed by Wolfgang Becker.[8] The film was both a commercial and a critical success and won several awards including the Csar Award for Best Film from the European Union, Best Film at the European Film Awards, the German Film Awards for Outstanding Film, Best European Film at the Goya Awards, Best Foreign Language Film for theLondon Film Critics' Circle, and it was also listed in the Empire magazine 2010's list of "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema"[30]Tiersen was the recipient of the German Film Awards for Outstanding Music. On 15 November 2003, Tiersen with Stuart A. Staples, the lead singer of indie band Tindersticks, actress and singer Jane Birkin, singer and vocalist for Cocteau Twins Elizabeth Fraser, singer and songwriter Christophe Miossec, and Dominique A released 3 titres indits au profit de la FIDH (English: 3 New Tracks for the Benefit of FIDH), a 3-track CD that was part of the On Aime, On Aide benefit collection for raising funds for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).[31]

Yann Tiersen (left) and Christophe Miossec (right) at Cabaret Vauban, Brest, France, 6 February 2005. Tiersen's list of collaborators continues to grow album after album and in October 2004 released Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright, a collaboration album with American singer-songwriter Shannon Wright, and, in the same year, he is featured on The Divine Comedy's album Absent Friends. In 2005, Tiersen released his fifth studio album Les Retrouvailles. The album features several collaborators including the Orchestre National de Paris, singers Elizabeth Fraser, Jane Birkin, Stuart A. Staples, Dominique A, and Miossec, strings players Jean-Franois Assy, Frederic Dessus, Guillaume Fontanarosa, Bertrand Causse, Anne Causse Biragnet, Armelle Legoff, Frdric Haffner, flute player Elliott, drummer Ludovic Morillon, and ondes Martenot player Christine Ott.[32][33] Les Retrouvailles also includes a DVD short film entitled La Traverse, directed by Aurlie du Boys, which documents the making of the album in Ushant, and incorporates an animated video for the non-album track, "Le Train", and also live versions of a handful of songs. The album produced a single, "Kala", sung by Elizabeth Fraser, and Tiersen also played piano on Staples' solo debut album,Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04. The subsequent world tour of 2006 replaced the multi-instrumental ensemble with electric guitars and an ondes Martenot, and produced his third live album, On Tour, which was released together with a DVD, directed by Aurlie du Boys, about the tour, in November 2006.[34][35] In 2006, he also released two singles, "La Mancha" and "La Rade", and he was featured onThe Endless Rise of the Sun, third studio album by electronic group Smooth, Raides la ville extended play by Katel, and 13m by David Delabrosse. 2008 saw his return after a five years absence as a composer of film scores when he provided the background music for Tabarly,[36][37]a Pierre Marcel's documentary film about the French sailor, two-time champion of the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, and father of French yachting ric Tabarly. The documentary was released on June 2008, exactly ten years after Tabarly's death. ric Tabarly was lost on the night of 1213 June 1998 at Irish Sea when he was struck by a gaff of his Pen Duick during heavy swell and knocked overboard from his yacht near Wales while on his way to the Fife Regatta in Scotland. His body was recovered five weeks later off the coast of Ireland by a French fishing trawler. The documentary, narrated by Tabarly himself, traces his sporting career until his last meal in Ushant.[8] Before the end of the decade, Tiersen also contributed to Christine Ott's debut solo album Solitude Nomade, and to Miossec's seventh studio album Finistriens.