Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English actress, singer, songwriter, and model. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career as an actress in British and French cinema.

Edith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "the Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing. (Given her extraordinarily petite size, audiences marveled all the more at the force of her vocals.) Her style epitomized that of the classic French chanson: highly emotional, even melodramatic, with a wide, rapid vibrato that wrung every last drop of sentiment from a lyric. She preferred melancholy, mournful material, singing about heartache, tragedy, poverty, and the harsh reality of life on the streets; much of it was based to some degree on her real-life experiences, written specifically for her by an ever-shifting cast of songwriters.

Celine Dion began work on Encore un Soir in the summer of 2015 when her husband Rene Angelil was quite ill. He passed away in January 2016, around the midpoint of the sessions, so it could stand to reason the album was a way for Dion to work through her grief, but this French-language record isn't quite as simple as that. For one, Dion's art isn't strictly autobiographical; she may pour herself into her performances but a correlation between her personal life and her recordings isn't easy to draw. Secondly, Encore un Soir is evenly divided between pop tunes and ballads, not too dissimilar from her usual albums. That said, there's a certain sense of restraint and deliberateness to Encore un Soir that does give it an emotional pull.

Highlights from the screen icon’s music catalogue, featuring a distinctive take on swinging yé-yé and groovy pop-psych, as well as her own Tropezian introspection. The extensive booklet includes exclusive musings from B.B. herself on this brief and brilliant aspect to her career.

A French pressing of Amanda's 1989 Italian-only album Uomini più uomini was entitled Tant qu'il y aura des hommes (As Long As There Are Men) and basically contained the same song selection, although some of them had been re-recorded with French lyrics…

The late-'60s film starring Marianne Faithfull and Alain Delon has a cult reputation, if only because it's one of Faithfull's few film appearances (and has rarely been seen, especially in the U.S.). The soundtrack has enough of a groovy late-'60s period feel to merit a cult reputation of its own, with its bordering-on-bizarre mix of solid '60s Hammond organ grooves, soothing quasi-classical interludes, lush '60s Europop along the lines of the theme from A Man and a Woman, and brief flashes of psychedelia and avant-gardisms. (Faithfull fans be cautioned: Marianne does not sing on the soundtrack at all.) The recurring motifs are quite insinuating, and treated with a number of imaginative arrangements, making this a pretty interesting find for fans of '60s Euro easy listening/pop hybrids, even if they're not interested in having a souvenir of the film. The CD reissue does the job right by adding good liner notes and three bonus cuts by vocalists Mireille Mathieu and Cleo Laine, who recorded these tracks after Les Reed added lyrics to three instrumental pieces from the film.

Henri Salvador is an 89-year-old with an extraordinary history. Born in French Guyana, he moved to France as a child, joined a dance orchestra as guitarist, and ended up working in Brazil, where his songs would later influence the work of the great Tom Jobim - the greatest composer of the bossa nova era of the late 1950s. Salvador also became a celebrity, and a TV personality back in France, and he now seems poised for unlikely international success. This new set was recorded in Paris, New York and (of course) Rio, where his producer was the great Jacques Morelenbaum, who has worked with everyone from Jobim to Mariza; they were joined by Brazilian stars Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. It's remarkable for Salvador's effortlessly clear, perfect vocals and equally unexpected range. Many of the songs are gently charming laid-back ballads, but there's also a swinging French-language treatment of Ray Charles, with Alleluia! Je l'Ai Dans la Peau. Alleluia, indeed.

Always a big event when she releases a new record, the pop empress presents her brand new set of songs. Overlooked by mass audiences, pop chameleon Mylene Farmer enjoys the adoration of millions in her native France, where, in the course of her 3-decade career, she has evolved from popstress to pop Empress. With 60+ singles, 31 million records sold, and an endless array of awards, accolades, and records broken, she is enjoying royal status and success equal to that of Madonna. "Disobedience" is her 11th studio effort, following the incredible "Interstellaires" from 2015. Mylene creates sexy and hypnotic compositions, completing the mysterious atmosphere with her astonishing, eerie vocals. Transcending the barrier of language, she can be as compelling as anyone of her international peers.

French chanteuse Mireille Mathieu is classically known for her illustrious French crooning during the '60s and '70s. In the early '60s, French pop vocalist Johnny Hallyday's manager Johnny Stark noticed Mathieu's enchanting vocalic beauty and later built her into her own star with the classic urchin hairdo and loud, vibrant costumes. She was quickly hailed as the next Edith Piaf and her 1965 performance run at the Paris Olympia sparked her recording relationship with Barclay Records. Singles such as "Mon Credo," "C'est Ton Nom," and "Qu'elle Est Belle" made Mathieu an international star in Europe while achieving mild success in the Americas, but her cover of Englebert Humperdinck's "The Last Waltz" was an impressive French interpretation that made her impact charts in Britain.

Recorded in concert during his 2002 tour in support of his A L'Envers album, Jean-Jacques Goldman's live backing outfit showed themselves capable of many surprises, pulling out nuggets from their catalog as well as showcasing the latest album's tracks. As is usual with live French offerings, the audience plays a prime role in the proceedings on Un Tour Ensemble…

Marc Almond - Heart On Snow (2003) {XIII Bis Records 6403262}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 409 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 162 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 41 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2003 XIII Bis Records / Blue Star | 6403262
Pop / Chanson / Adult Alternative Pop / New Romantic / Alternative / Torch Songs / Vocal Pop

Defying expectations and throwing anyone for a loop who guessed what Marc Almond might do after Stranger Things, Heart on Snow is his Russian album. That is to say that some of the songs are traditional Russian folk music, some are inspired by Almond's somewhat existentialist views of Russian life and love, and others merely mention Russian life but come across like traditional Almond songs. Instruments mostly take a backseat to Almond's voice, which is in peak form, but each song has a firm foundation of a combination of upright bass, piano, accordion, violin, percussion, moody keyboards, and guitars.

Created by bringing together Étienne Daho, Jean-Louis Piérot and Jane Birkin, Oh Pardon tu dormais is her most intimate album so far. “ Étienne helped me release a past pain, which saved me from melancholy and inertia. We gave each other everything, we took everything from each other and I’m still stunned by how the 3 of us worked together. We are this album’s parents… and this moves me” said Jane Birkin, who speaks for the first time about the death of her daughter Kate, the absence, love anxiety, ghosts from the past…