Jean Claude Vannier 'Jean Claude Vannier et Son Orchestre de Mandolines' LP

Ipecac Recordings are honoured to be putting out an album by legendary composer and producer, Jean Claude Vannier. This isn’t the first time he’s been on the label though. In 2019, he collaborated with Mike Patton and released Corpse Flower.

The album is categorized as French Pop, but can also fall into the Classical world, being that it’s instrumental and features mandolin and accordion.

Jean Claude Vannier is most well-known for his work with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. His resume is too long to list here, with work going back almost 60 years to 1968.

Featured artists on the release include Vincent Beer-Demander and Grégory Daltin. Vincent is an award-winning musician who collaborates with the French National Orchestra and countless others. Grégory has worked alongside artists such as Michel Godard, Denis Pascal and more.

The project was born from an unusual encounter between the man the press call ‘The Rare Bird’ and the famous mandolinist from Marseilles, a pioneer in the revival of this small Mediterranean lute.

Jean Claude Vannier has created an album that is both poetic and out of step, in which the mandolin is multiplied to form a singular orchestral sound palette, mingled with the accordion’s soufflet and the composer’s use of the solo mandolin: taping, bottleneck, percussion, treble.

A pinch of strings, a hint of childhood, melodies that touch the heart, orchestration that’s never expected - these are the emotions that emerge from this album by Jean Claude Vannier.