Chansons

Through the songs or ‘chansons’, we are given the chance to be transported back to a point when the word, note, instrument and performer collided to document impressions of a world lived long ago and yet with which we share so much. As songs that had a vibrant life beyond the words, we are afforded an entrance into the evergreen world of instrumental music of the Renaissance, into music that filled the taverns and dwellings of Paris and beyond. This is why these works maintain such relevance for us today. For Chansons musicales is not simply an exercise in museum-driven reconstruction, notwithstanding the world-class research that underpins the project. These are living and breathing works.

10 CD box set celebrating the life and work of the legendary French chanteuse Édith Piaf, who would have been 100 years old in 2015. The set includes sixteen original albums recorded between 1946 and 1962 and many of her most famous chansons. As Piaf's friend Jean Cocteau said of this unique artist who sang with an unreserved intensity about life and love, particularly unhappy love to which she herself was no stranger, "there was never an Édith Piaf before her and there will surely never again be one after her".

With their new album "Chansons sans paroles", the young brass ensemble "Salaputia Brass" takes us through the history of French chanson. From the Renaissance madrigal to the present day, almost every era is represented. New arrangements specially tailored for the ensemble allow these works to be heard in a completely new tonal brilliance. Due to the expressiveness of the brass instruments and their tonal proximity to the human voice, the music speaks volumes, even without the words.