Best known for the much-adored soundtracks of Amélie (2001) and Goodbye Lenin! (2003), Yann Tiersen is one of the most famous French musicians. But his latest album “Dust Lane” will certainly surprise listeners who are only familiar with his 1990s hits and albums. What began as a simple, song-based album, sketched out by Tiersen alone on acoustic guitar, and toy drums gradually took on new layers and added complexities. “I took some distance and decided to deconstruct most of the songs as I was quite tired with the traditional structure of chorus, bridge, etc,” he says.

 

 

The result is definitely disconcerting. However much Yann Tiersen has wanted to prove his ability to tread the fine line between piano-based melody and synthetic music, it seems that he lost the essence of his past pieces. Where has the aesthetic simplicity of his piano-based masterpieces which give some way to explaining his enormous fan-base got to ? Dust Lane is actually an ambitious new territory for Tiersen. An array of vintage synthesiser sounds add billowing, analogue textures, electric guitars and bass bring layers of fuzz and distortion, but it is not like the Yann Tiersen to use so many sound effects.

 

Other grounds for disappointment is the addition of voices , in “Fuck me” (“Fuck me, fuck me… make me come again”) and “Palestine” (P...A...L...E...S...T...I...N...E throughout the song ) : neither of which gain any points for originality or poetry.

 

Final verdict : There are some albums that just get lost into exploring new universes and, sorry Yann, but it appears that your Dust Lane is one of them.

 

Dust Lane was released on 4 October 2010.