La Valse des monstres

Born in 1970 in Brest, Yann Tiersen grew up in Rennes starting to play the piano at the age of four and the violin at the age of six. The thriving musical scene in Rennes provided a background for Tiersen's musical development. Influenced by punk rock, when he was thirteen, Tiersen broke his violin, bought an electric guitar and started to play in rock bands. Over time, all his bandmates left to pursue other interests and Tiersen continued on his own. This eclectic upbringing would play an influence in his mature musical production.[3][4]

Tiersen began writing the material that would form the basis for his first studio album around 1993. In the early 1990s the musician was experimenting with synths and samplers, looping samples from existing works to create his original compositions. After hours spent listening to old records, in search for orchestral strings to sample, Tiersen decided to record them himself. He therefore had his violin fixed and started using it, alongside the piano, to compose his music. To further expand his sound palette he brought in the accordion and the melodica which would act as wind instruments in his pieces, along with the toy piano and the harpsichord, this one playing the role of the guitar.[3][5]

I couldn't play a brass instrument – I tried but I was really bad – I couldn't play the flute, and the accordion was a keyboard so it was easy.[6]

— Yann Tiersen

The composer spent the summer of 1993 recording over forty compositions with guitar, violin and accordion. He described his vision as guided by intuition rather than the classical canon, pursuing the idea of "musical anarchy".[3]

Let's live in an enormous world of sound we can use randomly, with no rules at all. [...] Let's play with sound, forget all knowledge and instrumental skills, and just use instinct – the same way punk did.

— Yann Tiersen

Some of these tracks were written for the theatrical adaptation of Freaks, a 1932 American horror film by Tod Browning, while others were inspired by Yukio Mishima's 1955 The Damask Drum and also served as an accompaniment for its representation.[3][7]

Tiersen subsequently assembled the album La Valse des monstres out of some tracks he had worked on in 1993, together with other compositions from the following months, and divided the track listing into two sections, each one named after the material it had been inspired by: "Freaks" (comprising the first ten tracks) and "Le Tambourin de Soie" (comprising the remaining seven). Recording took place in Paris in the spring of 1995.[8]

The album consists of instrumental acoustic compositions, featuring piano, violin, toy piano, accordion, harpsichord, melodica chime and percussion. Tiersen played all instruments (except for the drums on two tracks) and carried on the mixing himself.[9] He proceeded recording each element individually and subsequently layered the multiple tracks to obtain the final compositions. On "La Rue", for instance, each one of the four violins was recorded separately and the four recordings were later assembled into a more complex string section.[7]

Behind their apparently playful and whimsical melodies, Tiersen's early compositions hide a bitter feeling of sadness and loss, as he himself repeatedly pointed out.[10] Years later the composer spoke about the music from his first three albums, underlining its double nature: "There has always been a context where it's naïve, but also dark and linked to death."[11]

Several of the unreleased compositions from the recording sessions that produced La Valse des monstres eventually saw the light as part of Tiersen's second studio album Rue des cascades, published in the following year, which would continue exploring the musical direction set by its predecessor.[3] A violin solo version of the "Mouvement introductif" theme also appears on Rue des cascades.

Two tracks from La Valse des monstres ("La Valse des monstres" and "Le Banquet") were later included in the soundtrack of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 2001 film Amélie, along with other songs from Tiersen's first three albums and original compositions the musician had worked on.

All music written and arranged by Yann Tiersen.[12][9]

Credits according to the album liner notes.[9]