Laurianne Langevin

voice

Jean Fontamar

piano

Three songs in free streaming on our channel

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Paris-Piaf is an outstandingly beautiful record. This tribute paid to Édith Piaf by Jean Fontamar and Laurianne Langevin is both intimate and delicate.
If the word did not sound so old-fashioned nowadays, it might be described as “beautiful”, in the full meaning of the word.
Beauty in the sense of clarity, beauty in the sense of brightness: a beauty as deep and musical as the life of the great French singer, as Jean Fontamar’s delicate touch on the keys, as Laurianne Langevin’s moving voice. As the full meaning becomes so outstanding, there you have it simply: Paris-Piaf is an outstandingly “beautiful” record.

Paolo Fresu
Musician

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To approach the said “sacred material” with love, candor and consistency, and with the dazzling grace fit to create this little jewel of simplicity. As an “old hand“ living on music, records and everything of that kind since I reached the age of reason, if somebody had asked me only ten years ago what I should have thought of another tribute to Paris, to Montand or to Piaf, I would have first taken a good look at the person speaking to me before asking them if they had not gone crazy. Europe, after the somewhat fanatical triumph of the record industry, simply couldn’t take yet another tribute to the glorious names and splendours of the past. Not to mention the challenge of tackling a material which might be described as “sacred” – with all due respect to each new cover of La Vie en rose, no one might assume to have ever come close, however remotely, to the sense and emotion which in its buoyancy, its candor and its atmosphere only the voice of Édith Piaf, as she released that timeless hit, could arouse.

For all these reasons, you can imagine how uncomfortable I felt when Jean Fontamar (whom I knew better, besides, as a cultural manager than as a sparkling pianist) told me about a project of that kind; I was about to answer in the way I have just described but, as I listened to him setting out his idea, I started to think: considering the lack of productions like these in a decade, also considering the degenerated state of the music supply in itself, a retrieval of the Classics might not be such a bad idea.

It was only after listening to the master of Paris-Piaf that I became certain of the buoyancy, the candor and the atmosphere, alternative and captivating, that Jean and Laurianne have managed to breathe into a record basically dedicated to the Ville Lumière – and so I was left undoubtful concerning the merits of their endeavour.

At a time when cultural practices are in dire straits in Italy (though I could well extend this view to a global scale) only beauty in a broad sense can show us a way out. And in this case, beauty will not tolerate any kind of mannerism or false grace, nor will it be shrunk down to a musical postcard for bored tourists.

Laurianne and Jean’s daring choice is to approach the said “sacred material” with love, candor and consistency, and with the dazzling grace fit to create this little jewel of simplicity – a jewel held together by an “active”, clear and lively piano, and by a wise singing performance, through a voice simply “human” and never constrained in academic or pseudo-academic posturing.

To revisit some songs which belong to the world’s heritage is not an easy endeavour. To do that, you need to love and respect the art of music – which itself, with such an outcome as this, can only be thankful for so much beauty.

Thank you Laurianne. Thank you Jean.

Vic Albani

Vic Albani
Pannonica Art Director

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Laurianne’s voice and Jean’s piano. Nothing more. Anything else would simply be superfluous. «And suddenly a voice coming from the guts, a voice holding the body from head to toe, rolls out a towering wave of black velvet. The warm wave overwhelms us, it flows through us and deep into us». This was how Jean Cocteau defined Édith Piaf and her art. And when you listen to Paris-Piaf by Laurianne Langevin and Jean Fontamar, you will be swept up in such a wave.
To set out the masterpieces of the Parisian “sparrow” in our time is a hard task, in some respects even a mad task. But Laurianne and Jean handle Piaf’s songbook so naturally, with such utmost respect for its message and its depth of emotions, that the listener is left in a state of ecstasy and surprise.
Laurianne’s voice and Jean’s piano. Nothing more. Anything else would simply be superfluous.
As if by magic, these two outstanding performers will take you to the Paris which the “Môme” so dearly loved – they will let you experience its unique atmosphere: the joys and the pains, the passions, the loves and the losses.
«When I sing, I’m not on Earth anymore», Édith Piaf used to say. Well! Now is your turn to be leaving the Earth, carried away by Laurianne and Jean.

Boris Savoldelli
Musician

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They touched me to the heart as we recorded. How come? Laurianne Langevin and Jean Fontamar are a French duo that I was honored to welcome to my studio for the production of their record dedicated to Édith Piaf and to French chanson.
Two musicians (Laurianne sings, Jean plays the piano) who touched me to the heart as we recorded. How come? Because they give voice to a deep-rooted artistic feeling, arising not only from the notes but more generally from the impressive ease with which they express themselves and get their emotions across. A stunning duo who know exactly what they are doing.

Carlo Cantini
Musician
Sound engineer

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To sing after Piaf but also away from her, of course (how could Piaf be mimicked without being disfigured?), yet in no way backing down from the emotional and vocal commitment that made her who she was. To walk through Paris following Piaf and her suitors (Montand, Aznavour…), to make a beguiling and light-footed record – a record of a gorgeous sunny afternoon by the River Seine, however interspersed with a couple of songs drawn in charcoal (Les Feuilles mortes, Milord…) To sing after Piaf but also away from her, of course (how could Piaf be mimicked without being disfigured?), yet in no way backing down from the emotional and vocal commitment that made her who she was.
Even though she usually sang with small orchestras of a dozen musicians, we have arranged her songs to just a plain piano, so as to bring more ease and suppleness to some of her most beautiful melodies.

Laurianne Langevin

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The voice of Édith Piaf is the only truth, both self-evident and puzzling, to this concert. Édith Piaf lived and sang her life so heartily that she passed away, exhausted, at the age of 47.
With a range and expressive power yet unheard, the voice of Piaf made the audience of her time feel, oddly enough, as if it was blown from the lungs of a sparrow, from the lungs of a tiny “piaf” – thence the name by which the artist (who was only 147 centimeters tall) was to be remembered and honored.
The voice of Édith Piaf is the only truth, both self-evident and puzzling, to this concert.

Jean Fontamar

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“Classe indiscutibile!”
Rockerilla

“Raro il fatto che, a un primo ascolto guidato da un’attenta curiosità, ne seguano altri e altri ancora, quasi a cercare di decifrare una magia diffusa dai dialoghi delicati e pregnanti tra una voce e un pianoforte. (…) Paris-Piaf è un lavoro cesellato con sapienza, misura, passione e gusto davvero rari”.
La Gazzetta di Parma

“Assolutamente da non perdere!”
MusicheParole

“Le rivisitazioni di Langevin et Fontamar nascondono una grande complessità e la capacità di sintetizzare l’anima più pura delle composizioni. (…) Salutati da un applauso interminabile [al Teatro Grande di Brescia].”
Giornale di Brescia

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“Paris-Piaf è un gioiello per sensibilità, misura e delicatezza.”
AmadeusMagazine

“Uno dei progetti più curiosi – e di spessore – degli ultimi anni, Paris-Piaf approda a cifre espressive uniche”.
L’Avvenire

“Un camerismo quasi sacrale, talvolta con un pizzico di swing, onde creare quell’intimità parigina che potrebbe esaltare i tanti cultori di Milord, La Vie en rose, Non, je ne regrette rien…”
Il Manifesto

“Tutto marcia egregiamente.”
Jazz Magazine

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Among the dearest memories of childhood, there is dancing: the space where you dance and the chance to touch an audience. As another space – that of the voice – opens, singing becomes self-evident.

She is thirty when she settles in Italy. Apart from her singing classes and her activities as a performer, she runs several vocal ensembles in Lombardy.

She meets Jean in 2016. A French-born pianist, he also has lived in Italy for ten years. One night, as they rehearse Milord together in a small mountain theatre, tears well up to their eyes – and Paris-Piaf was born.

Laurianne Langevin
biography

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As far as he can remember, he has always played the piano. On the benches of the Sorbonne where he studies humanities, on the streets and in the cafés of Paris, his twenties are those of a book-loving musician.

Jean Fontamar - aka Cyrille Doublet - is thirty when he settles in Italy. Apart from his music classes and his activities as a performer, he runs several theatres in Lombardy.

He meets Laurianne in 2016. A French-born singer, she also has lived in Italy for ten years. One night, as they rehearse Milord together in a small mountain theatre, tears well up to their eyes – and Paris-Piaf was born.

Jean Fontamar
biography

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Sound credits
The three songs in free streaming are from the album Paris-Piaf – recorded, mixed and mastered at Digitube Studio, Mantua (Italy) by Carlo Cantini.

La Bohème
Music: Ch. Aznavour; words: J. Plante
Vocals: Laurianne Langevin; piano and arrangement: Jean Fontamar.

Les Feuilles mortes
Music: J. Kosma; words: J. Prévert
Vocals: Laurianne Langevin; piano and arrangement: Jean Fontamar.

Non, je ne regrette rien
Music: Ch. Dumont; words: M. Vaucaire
Vocals: Laurianne Langevin; piano and arrangement: Jean Fontamar.

Photo credits
Wladimir Zaleski: p1, p3/5, p4, p5
Emanuele Vergari: p3/1
Roberto Cifarelli: p3/2
Adriana Colombo: p3/7, p3/8
Siana Recaldini: p6

Artwork
Jean Fontamar: p2

Translations:
French version: Jean Fontamar.
Italian version: Federica Cremaschi.
English version: Jean-Marie Roblain.

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Credits

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