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The 100th Anniversary (1952​-​2052)

by Jean-Jacques Birgé

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes with a beautiful 52 pages booklet designed by Étienne Mineur,
    with a text on each track and a lot of pictures

    Includes unlimited streaming of The 100th Anniversary (1952-2052) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 73 Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Codex, Apéro Labo 1, La preuve, Fŭtur, Listen To The Quiet Plattfisk, Pique-nique au labo 3, Le songe de la raison, Par terre, and 65 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

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1.
- Now, I give the microphone to Mr. Jean-Jacques Birgé. Over to you, Jean-Jacques Birgé! So Mr. Jean-Jacques Birgé, are you ready? - Wait, wait... This is Jean-Jacques Birgé speaking! Under the gambling circle The tailor is happy To sell new costumes To bluff lovers In the old elevator They put on clean blazers Having lost everything They are shedding their skin Place de la Bourse The 50s Go back to the source Of revolts that haunt me From our balcony A big balloon flies away Red blood of the beasts Bursting into funfairs In the dark furnished apartment Words of freedom Evoke independence Of people marching on Place de la Bourse The 50s Go back to the source Of revolts that haunt me - This is the end!
2.
- Yes hello, can you hear me? I'm calling from the demo… Above all don’t be afraid In the Avenue des Gobelins I'm calling from a hairdressers To say that everything is fine. Barricades in Paris Peace and Love in Frisco Elsewhere is real life Music and my backpack The seeds that have sprouted Grow on my balcony Hash and LSD We are experienced No taboos nor time out Night is like day Dream in Technicolor Think only of love
3.
Today music is more often played than it is written on paper. We write it differently. We write it collectively. We write it with computer systems... 519 dead people and dozens of missing persons, the damage is huge... No, but tell me, because you are waving at me, I do not understand what's going on... Music produces meaning. The music of Un Drame Musical Instantané is already blind cinema. So yes, is it your reality? Neither on the feet nor on the hands... A sort of counterpoint, a fiction around which all the forces of the nation would happily regroup, a retrospective report shot on the scene of the crime or a daily series that simply shows the joy of living, but here I anticipate... Made of phases of slow evolution and then accelerations that we call crises... I saw that there were however coded signals! But listen, I think that’s the best thing... We speak English French accents Playing the States Strong critics Trying to be us Fighting U.S. We make love and we love No taboo Fighting the coup Who’s above? Trying to be us Fighting U.S.
4.
O parents, dear elders, What do you want from us That we cannot give And that drives us crazy? Children, be wise, When you drive Leave us a message To dispel our doubts! O doddering parents, Delivering our neuroses, Do not be surprised If we send you to hell Children, by the way, Do not make us seem older We still have all the ages That we have already had.
5.
6.
As I am a bit funny Stunned by the dance I can't feel my feet anymore I’m even out of my depth And to the package of Advancing life, I oppose The liberated loves Of maturity As I am a bit fancy There is meaning in words No need for wine glasses Just six-stanza verses To toast together At this rebirth Rejecting the worms Of our six feet under
7.
How many days Shal I resist My sweet love Dear Snow White How many nights Waiting for you Making no noise Not hearing you How much time Does a kiss take To wake you up Right now How much does it hurt If times passes Without our cries To leave a trace Come closer Even sleeping Deliver us If we’re off beat
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about

This album commemorates the centenary of Jean-Jacques Birgé, a multi-disciplinary 
artist whose musical work marked his time.



In 2018 he turns to his past by composing one piece per 
decade, reflecting both his career and the times he went trough. As a tribute to his father who loved science fiction, he also imagines the decades to come, composing three 
anticipation pieces. This vectorial evocation resembles a shadow theatre whose appearances merge with reality. To conclude the album, the composer Sacha Gattino wrote a Tombeau in honor of his friend.



For the sake of authenticity, Jean-Jacques Birgé mixes 
archives, the oldest of which dates from 1958, and 
recordings made with many musicians among his friends: singers Pascale Labbé, Birgitte Lyregaard, his daughter Elsa Birgé, his comrade of Un Drame Musical Instantané Bernard Vitet on the trumpet, trombonist Yves Robert, horn player Nicolas Chedmail, composer Antonin-Tri Hoang on bass 
clarinet, guitarists Hervé Legeay and Philippe Deschepper, cellist Didier Petit, Vincent Segal exceptionally on bass, drummers Cyril Atef and Éric Échampard, accordionist 
Michèle Buirette, sound designer Amandine Casadamont and Sacha Gattino mixing sampler, organ music box and whistle.

 The opera spans ten decades throughout which we can hear Jean-Jacques Birgé on the synthesizer, his major instrument which he has been one of the first to use in France since 1973, but also Theremin, Tenori-on, Mascarade Machine, trumpet, flute, inanga and jew's harp, his favorite. His voice is also present, from childhood to adulthood, including three passages he sings.

Étienne Mineur has designed the magnificent cover with a 
52-pages booklet.

Listen to Jean-Jacques Birgé on Radio Drame. 150 hours of unissued music, free to listen or download, randomly on the homepage, or 1000 pieces among 80 thematic albums, without forgetting still available LPs and CDs
www.drame.org

Most of the lyrics are in French (some in English), but on Bandcamp it's the English translation

Télérama ⨍⨍⨍ "Beau geste" - ÉLU Citizen Jazz

credits

released July 9, 2018

Words by Jean-Jacques Birgé
Recordings from 1958 to 2018
Mixed by Jean-Jacques Birgé at Studio GRRR
except Sacha Gattino's piece at Tintinnabulum

Jean-Jacques Birgé – vocals, synthesizers, orchestra, Pâte à son, Theremin, Tenori-on, Mascarade Machine, field recording, trumpet, flute, inanga, jaw harp
Elsa Birgé - vocals
Pascale Labbé – vocals
Birgitte Lyregaard – vocals
Bernard Vitet – trumpet
Yves Robert – trombone
Nicolas Chedmail – horn
Antonin-Tri Hoang – bass clarinet
Philippe Deschepper – guitar
Hervé Legeay – guitar
Didier Petit – cello
Vincent Segal – bass
Cyril Atef – drums
Éric Échampard – drums
Michèle Buirette – accordion
Amandine Casadamont – vinyls
Sacha Gattino – sampler, music box organ, whistling, electronics…

Mastering - Marwan Danoun
Liner notes - Laure Nbataï
Photos - Jean Birgé, Henry Colomer, Bernard Vitet, Frédéric Durieu, Françoise Romand, Olivier Degorce and JJB
Graphic Design - Étienne Mineur

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Jean-Jacques BIRGÉ Paris, France

Jean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer (co-founder of Un Drame Musical Instantané), sound designer & multimedia artist, writer & blogger. (Mediapart)... Specialist of the relations between sound and pictures, he has been one of the early synthesizer players in France in 1973, the initiator of the return of silent movies with music in 1976. ... more

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