Yann Tiersen

Yann Tiersen

Yann Tiersen is a French musician and composer from Brest, France. He works across studio albums, collaborations and film soundtracks, and his music draws on a wide range of instruments, including guitar, piano, synthesizer and violin, as well as melodica, xylophone, toy piano, harpsichord, accordion and typewriter. His work is associated with instrumental music, soundtrack writing, classical crossover, minimalism, modern classical and avant-garde styles, and he is also linked with amapiano.

Early training and solo approach

Tiersen begins learning piano at four and violin at six, then receives classical training in Rennes, Nantes and Boulogne. At 13, he turns away from violin performance, breaks his violin, buys a guitar and forms a rock band. After that band breaks up, he starts recording on his own with a cheap mixing desk, an eight-track reel, synthesizer, sampler and drum machine, while also using guitar, violin and accordion. He describes this period as a move towards a kind of musical anarchy, working largely by intuition rather than from the classical canon.

In summer 1993 he records more than 40 tracks alone, which form the basis of his first two albums.

Early albums and breakthrough

His second album, La valse des monstres (1995), is released on the Nancy-based label Ici, d’ailleurs and is inspired by Tod Browning’s Freaks and Yukio Mishima’s The Damask Drum. Rue des cascades follows six months later as a collection of short pieces featuring toy piano, harpsichord, violin, accordion and mandolin.

Le phare (1998) marks his commercial breakthrough. He records it in self-imposed isolation on Ouessant, spending two months in a rented house and watching the Créac’h lighthouse, whose light he says reveals hidden details of the landscape. The album sells over 160,000 copies.

Collaborations and orchestral work

Tiersen works with a range of vocal and other artists, including Claire Pichet on Le phare and Rue des cascades, Elizabeth Fraser on Les retrouvailles, and Shannon Wright on Yann Tiersen and Shannon Wright. He also collaborates with The Divine Comedy, Noir Désir, Dominique A., Françoiz Breut, Les Têtes Raides, The Married Monk and Sage Francis.

His later albums include L’absente (2001), which features Synaxis, Lisa Germano and Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, and Les retrouvailles (2005), which includes guests Stuart Staples, Jane Birkin and Elizabeth Fraser. During this period he also performs live with a full orchestra and an amplified string quartet, a setup documented on C’était ici (2002).

Film scores and selected releases

His soundtrack work brings wider recognition after the use of tracks from Rue des cascades in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie (2001), along with a couple of his own originals. He later writes scores for Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye Lenin! (2003) and Tabarly (2008), a documentary about the sailor Éric Tabarly.

His discography also includes Tout est calme (1999), Black session (1999, radio concert), On Tour (2006, live), and Dust Lane (2010).

Associated acts

Tiersen is associated with Wart, ESB and Elektronische Staubband.