Yann Tiersen Biography

Yann Tiersen will release his seventh studio album, Skyline, on April 17, 2012 via Anti- Records. Skyline finds Tiersen taking a confident step forward, cementing the sound of its darker sister, the critically acclaimed Dust Lane.

Says Tiersen, “Strangely while Skyline musically comes across as lighter and happier than Dust Lane the subject matter is somewhat darker - there is certainly a sense of moving on and what thoughts are left having dealt with loss”.

"Monuments,” the first single release from Skyline, shows Tiersen and his band own the world he now inhabits, a world of vintage synths, electric guitars, all unpinned by his incredible songwriting and musicianship. It’s a marked contrast to the man that people imagine they know (Tiersen also wrote the international soundtrack hits for the films Amelie and Goodbye Lenin), but it’s a world that he would argue he’s been in all along - it’s only now everyone else is catching up."

In “Monuments” a lyrical repetition muses our place in the world and the traces of ourselves we leave behind – “all monuments of men, they’re sinking in vain”. And yet, wrapped in a chorus of vocals and shimming guitars the message isn’t dark, rather it’s full of hope.



Skyline was recorded between Paris, San Francisco & and Ouessant a tiny island off the coast of West Britanny and mixed by Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, M83, David Bowie, Psychic TV). As always the music stems from Tiersen, whose long periods of recording alone are broken with spells with input from a cast of musicians. An array of vintage synths add billowing, analogue textures, electric guitars and bass bring layers of fuzz and distortion. Songs slip from their moorings, take off on new and unexpected currents. "My plan was also to play with contrast between electric and quite dense parts and more sober and minimal quiet parts including piano and strings," he adds. So, voices join together in chorus, arcing violins and crashing drums build towards mighty fanfares – but then, clouds part, squall recedes to silence, and mournful piano and strings guide you home.