Better late than never, the request to review this compilation turned up three years after it was originally released!
Nomadic by nature, Marianne Dissard was born in the Pyrénées and lived in the American West from the age of 16.
She now divides her time between Paris France, Matera in Southern Italy, Tucson Arizona and, somewhat less glamorously, Ramsgate in Kent.
When not singing she’s a poet, sailor, filmmaker and multimedia performance artist.
The thirteen tracks of “baroque noir chanson fare” collected here by producer BK-One derive from her years spent in Tucson. There she recorded and hung out with Giant Sand and Calexico – hers in the French voice on the latter’s ‘Ballad of Cable Hogue’ and the mariachi spirit is frequently evident.
Most of the tracks are sung in French with a breathy seductiveness that goes with the language. The lightness and swagger is mixed with occasional moments of melodrama and melancholia.
This is a record steeped in carefree energy with an uplifting sense of fun and style.
