The first single from the Feb 14, 2025 release, Jean Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines. Pre-order at https://vannier.lnk.to/mandolin

Ipecac is honored to release the new album from legendary musician, composer and arranger, Jean Claude Vannier.

Jean Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines, out on Feb 14th, 2025 is a playful album of beautiful reveries composed on mandolin and accordion, that are both poetic and unrestrained. The title translates as Jean Claude Vannier and his mandolin orchestra, and this marks the first time that the ever-creative composer has written specifically for the mandolin. The album features fellow enthusiast Vincent Beer-Demander, whose mandolin is multiplied by an orchestra to form a singular sound palette, carefully combined with the accordion of Grégory Daltin.

A pinch of strings, a hint of childhood, melodies that touch the heart, orchestration that is always unexpected... these are just some of the elements to emerge from this album.

Mike Patton, who collaborated with Vannier on the 2019 release, Corpse Flower, has this to say about getting to put out his new album on Ipecac, ”Jean Claude is a dear friend, mentor and a wonderfully gifted and decorated composer. Read: LEGEND. To have worked with him is an unmitigated honour. His writing and arrangements have influenced an ocean of artists and I call myself one of the lucky ones who have crossed his path. He was writing ground-breaking stuff before I was born. He has affected me deeply and I’m forever grateful and in AWE.”

The album was created as a music score for a non-existent silent film, and tells the love story of a young boy we follow through time. The first single referencing his search for lost love;
I never saw her again
I looked for her in vain in the city
Time went by
Then I got into trouble
I started drinking
I’ve been a bartender, a garbage man, a fire-eater, a night porter, a gutter sweeper, a beggar.

Jean Claude Vannier, whom the press refer to as “the rare bird”, has worked over the past 60 years most famously with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, as well as artists such as Beck and Sean Lennon. He’s worked on countless soundtracks, released six solo albums and is a French pop-culture icon who’s composed for Eurovision, directed videos, exhibited paintings, hosted radio shows and published short stories.

This new album features mandolin virtuoso Vincent Beer-Demander, who has won multiple awards and collaborated with the French National Orchestra, Czeske Philharmonic, Mid-Atlantic Symphonic Orchestra and hundreds more around the world. Sounding like nothing else that either Demander nor Vannier has done before.

Also featured is Grégory Daltin, whose accordion playing brings another dimension to this beautiful album.

Jean Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines track listing:
01 - Moi, ma mandoline (Me, my mandolin)
02 - Comme les enfants savent aimer (How children know to love)
03 - La 2CV disparaît au coin de la rue (The 2CV disappears around the corner)
04 - Perdue dans la cité (Lost in the city)
05 - Il y avait des éléphants (There were elephants)
06 - À cause de mes problèmes (Because of my troubles)
07 - Une séance photo sous les arcades (A photoshoot under the arcades)
08 - Belle à pleurer (Beautiful enough to cry over)
09 - Danse des maillots de bain (Swimsuit dance)
10 - Nos regards se sont croisés (Our eyes crossed)
11 - La 2CV rouillée (The rusty 2CV)
12 - Un petit bout de verre cassé (A small piece of broken glass)
13 - Les feux arrière de l'ambulance (Ambulance taillights)

“... Though he has used the mandolin from time to time for recordings and arrangements, this is the first time that Jean Claude Vannier has written specifically for the instrument. And it’s all thanks to another mandolin enthusiast from childhood, Vincent Beer-Demander, mandolinist, composer and teacher at Marseille’s Pierre Barbizet Conservatory. The tremolo technique of mandolins, glissando effects using a steel or glass bottleneck-cylinder, harmonic colours reminiscent of voices, attacks on the strings that are like percussion... Jean Claude Vannier explores all the possibilities of the instrument and its alliance with the accordion. His compositions, each lasting just a few minutes, are melodic delights... an air of Italy, a moment of graceful reverie, at times intriguing, all to the credit of Jean Claude Vannier’s musical creativity... “
SYLVAIN SICLIER - LE MONDE

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