Delicado: Review of “Ã€ Bout De Souffle” (compilation)

	Album Details

À Bout De Souffle (Compilation) - 1960-1971
Label: Hortensia 873 008 (France) Format: CD From: France My rating: 5/10 Entered: 10/01/2002 Last updated: 10/01/2002 Post a comment Search on Ebay Search on GEMM
Here's one I bought a long time ago used in London. I was rather excited to find it, since I almost always enjoy the scores to French nouvelle vague movies, and I remembered particularly liking the music in Breathless, aka A Bout De Souffle. In fact, this is a compilation of pieces of soundtracks to six different films, all loosely linked by a 'nouvelle vague' label. The styles vary hugely between the different films. I had expected and hoped everything to be like Martial Solal's music for A Bout De Souffle - jazzy, nervy and very cool, with great piano and brass. Probably the standout track here is 'Poursuite', a very catchy number with vibes that reminds me of some of the film music Serge Gainsbourg was writing in the early sixties. Next up is some music from Truffaut's La Peau Douce by Georges Delerue. It's nice enough, but sounds strange after the Solal score - gentle, muted and moody, with strings and flute. One track is a Portuguese-style fado with guitar. Pierre Jansen's suite from Le Scandale is dramatic in a Bernard Herrman kind of way. Again, nice, but not really something I'd listen to out of the cinema. George Delerue returns with the short theme to Henri Colpi's Mona, L'Étoile sans nom. It's very delicate and beautiful, with strings and (I think) harp. Next, there are seven tracks, again by George Delerue, from Truffaut's Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent. These are pretty much in the style of the Mona piece - delicate and pretty, with pleasant string arrangements. Finally, two tracks are featured from Georges Moustaki's score to La Fianceé du pirate. These grabbed me a bit more, since the first is a folky sounding vocal by Barbara. So, this is an interesting disc to have, since it makes available some rare material. However, I was really looking for an overview of the jazz of the nouvelle vague, and aside from the Martial Solal tracks, this disc doesn't really offer much in the way of jazz.