FRENCH SINGING MADEMOISELLE 1967 (vinyl)

Description

While the "Swinging Mademoiselle" have become a musical genre in themselves over the past few years, and while some of their rediscovered ambassadors from the early 2000s, thanks to a few compilations (WIZZZ, Swinging Mademoiselle, Ils sont fous ces gaulois, Pop a Paris, etc.), have become true icons of a certain French pop culture (Jacqueline Taieb, Christine Pilzer, Stella, etc.), there is one who holds a special place. This is, of course, Clothilde, legitimately nicknamed the "Queen of the Swinging Mademoiselle." A creation of Germinal Tenas, artistic director at Vogue, to whom we owe some of the most curious records of French pop (Jean-Bernard de Libreville, Chorus Reverendus), Clothilde was intended by her creator to embody, beneath an angelic facade, a dishevelled version of Françoise Hardy: disillusioned singing, cynical lyrics about venality and adultery; a mischievous and silly demeanor; and shaky, bizarre compositions made Clothilde the ultimate anti-yéyé. Germinal Tenas' singular and avant-garde arrangements contributed greatly to Clothilde's posthumous acclaim (haunting fuzz, fairground organ, French horn, backwards tapes, sample loops on most of the tracks). Foreigners, especially the British and Americans, were not mistaken in their true devotion to this strange singer.