Yann Tiersen Debuts Video Care Of The Yellow Bird Project
Yann Tiersen will be releasing an ambitious new album entitled Skyline this April 17 via Anti- Records. In anticipation, the celebrated multi instrumentalist and composer has unveiled a video for his new song "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow."
The video will debut at the Yellow Bird Project along with a T shirt Tiersen designed for the charity Doctor's Without Borders. The Montreal-based Yellow Bird works with selected musicians such as Bon Iver, Andrew Bird, The National, Tiersen and others to create shirts that benefit charities chosen by the musician.
The clip features Tiersen performing a stripped down version of his song "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow" at the London offices of Doctors Without Borders. As Tiersen explains, "The song is inspired by the title of the 1959 Alan Lomax album I'm Gonna Live Until I Die. It focuses on the tiny pleasures of life with lyrics like 'I love the woods after the rain' and 'I love the shore after the storm.' The song grew out of the thought that you have no choice to live before you die it has to happen in that order and the cycle is inescapable."
To view the video just go to The Yellow Bird Project.
Tiersen's T shirt conveys the musician's interest in the marks and scars that humans leave behind on the landscape. Buildings and monuments that we build and revere quickly turned in to detritus and dust. Nothing is permanent, and everything is fragile - though we assign so much meaning to them in the beginning. The image represents the human monuments but it's unclear whether they are beautiful new structures or crumbling wrecks.
Doctors Without Borders delivers aid directly to people affected by armed conflict and other man-made or natural disasters.
Tiersen's new album 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.
Yann Tiersen Tour Dates:
Friday, 4/27/2012, 8:00 pm, Irving Plaza, New York, NY, US
Saturday, 4/28/2012, 8:00 pm
Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, US
Sunday, 4/29/2012, 8:00 pm, Royal Boston, Boston, MA, US
Tuesday, 5/01/2012, 8:00 pm, Metropolis, Montreal, QC, CA
Wednesday, 5/02/2012, 8:00 pm, The Phoenix Theatre, Toronto, ON, CA
Thursday, 5/03/2012, 8:00 pm, Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH, US
Friday, 5/04/2012, 8:00 pm, Metro, Chicago, IL, US
Saturday, 5/05/2012, 8:00 pm, First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, US
Tuesday, 5/08/2012, 8:00 pm, Showbox at the Market, Seattle, WA, US
Wednesday, 5/09/2012, 8:00 pm, Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC, CA
Thursday, 5/10/2012, 8:00 pm, Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR, US
Friday, 5/11/2012, 8:00 pm, Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, US
Saturday, 5/12/2012, 8:00 pm, The Music Box, Los Angeles, CA, US
Monday, 5/14/2012, 8:00 pm, Belly Up, San Diego, CA, US
Tuesday, 5/15/2012, 8:00 pm, The Rialto Theatre, Tucson, AZ, US
Thursday, 5/17/2012, 8:00 pm, TREES, Dallas, TX, US
Friday, 5/18/2012, 8:00 pm, Emo's East, Austin, TX, US
Saturday, 5/19/2012, 8:00 pm, Fitzgeralds, Houston, TX, US
Sunday, 5/20/2012, 8:00 pm, House of Blues, New Orleans, LA, US
Tuesday, 5/22/2012, 8:00 pm, Beacham Theatre, Orlando, FL, US
Wednesday, 5/23/2012, 8:00 pm, Grand Central, Miami, FL, US
Thursday, 5/24/2012, 8:00 pm, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, US
Friday, 5/25/2012, 8:00 pm, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, NC, US
Saturday, 5/26/2012, 8:00 pm, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC, US