Vincent Delerm, from the University of Rouen to the Halle aux grains in Toulouse
Vincent Delerm celebrates his 20-year career with an astonishing book-disc, illustrated with his own photographs. He will be in concert at the Halle aux grains on Tuesday 22 November.
With a copious book-disc of two albums – the first is a heterogeneous and amusing assembly of sketches of songs, models and other sound strangenesses, the second a magnificent suite of melancholy instruments, Vincent Delerm celebrates a career spanning 20 years where his work, sometimes mocked for his tics and TOCs (name-dropping, daily ailments, his very particular voice), has never ceased to gain in depth and precision, to establish himself as one of the most attached to French pop.
“20 years, it was the occasion, he explains. I didn’t want a compilation, but I found things put aside, photos, posters, small words… It was a teaser a little different from those that we usually offer for the gigs. I really liked releasing this box with lots of stuff in it. On the first disc, Comme une histoire, there are eight unreleased tracks – including a demo that I recorded when I was still at the University of Rouen! – and on the second, Without Words, these are instrumentals, with an upright piano sound unit, in a single take, as if I were in your room and playing for you. These are a bit like the fragments of the journey that I have been following for 20 years…”
Words, yes, but also melodies
In turn moving (when he speaks to Etienne Daho, when we hear the quivering voice of Fanny Ardant: “Yes, I can hear you… And you, can you hear me?”, when we discover a voice message from Jean Rochefort on Vincent’s laptop) and funny (“I really like your record, Monsieur Delerm, but… it squeaks!” we hear during an extract from a radio show), this first record is delightful and reminds us of loves this discreet, delicate and literate artist. The second disc, superb, will nail the beak to the detractors (which we hope Delerm doesn’t care about): the Parisian is an excellent pianist and a very underestimated melodist. His talent, so personal and original, shines throughout this birthday present and announces a passionate tour full of surprises. Better than a best-of, it makes you want to dive back into the boy’s work and find its many peaks (“15 Songs”, “Les Amants Parallèles”…) before going to applaud him this Tuesday, November 22 at la Halle aux Grains, where he will come back to this very first album which he will analyze today with tenderness: “It was a rather courageous record, against the current… and which ultimately brought me quite a bit of luck”. On stage, his talent and his sense of self-mockery work wonders.