Les vieux copains

Description

The majority of this album, released in September 1990, was recorded in July of the same year. Léo Ferré completed this program with two tracks, "Notre amour" and "Elle tourne la terre," which he performed on piano for a television program designed and directed in November 1989 by Jean-Christophe Averty and broadcast under the title "Ferré 90 - Amour Anarchie." "En amour," "Y'a une étoile," and "L'Europe s'ennuyait" come from a studio session in October 1988 during which Léo Ferré re-recorded about twenty of his very first songs. Who, not regularly engaging with the work of Léo Ferré, can realize upon listening to this album that it is half composed of songs written at the dawn of the fifties? More than any other, this record testifies to the timelessness of Léo Ferré's poetry and music. It is not out of nostalgia that he reflects on his past, but out of necessity. He knows that he has left too many works along the way that the times, circumstances, the "profession," or even his "surroundings" did not allow him to complete and promote as he wished. Thus, some of these works are presented to us in all the splendor, richness, and uniqueness of their orchestration. One can hardly imagine the sums of frustrations and renunciations accumulated by Léo Ferré over all these years before he "un-stuck" himself.