Yann Tiersen

Overview

When most kids were learning how to finger-paint, Yann Tiersen was mastering the classical piano. When most kids were reading whatever The Very Hungry Caterpillar translates to in French he was deciphering complex sheet music, and when his friends were probably running around in Baguette-crumbed shirts he was training at musical academies in Rennes, Nantes and Boulogne.

That’s enough to drive anyone insane so it’s not altogether surprising that at thirteen Tiersen smashed up his violin and formed a rock band. But it was only after they split and he spent a summer recording alone in his apartment that he became the totally genius multi-instrumentalist composer and virtuoso performer we know today. Rediscovering the violin and turning the humble accordion into a transformative tool of aural seduction, he’s wooed both audiences and filmmakers with his electrifying command of acoustic instruments. Remember the whimsical accordion music in Amélie? All Yann!

Skyline is Tiersen’s seventh studio album, following on from the brooding Dust Lane and chartering more ambitious territory than ever. Bulking up the keys and strings with heavy guitars and swelling synths (often simultaneously), this is a show you literally have to see to believe.