Nathalie Derome’s music has a weird mood to it. Her lovely voice and intriguing songs ensure that the listener remains interested though.

Ah non! Anna has a strange voice interrupting Derome’s half spoken delivery to great effect.Ton grand nez is playful yet sinister. It’s played on an accordion which reminds me of the circus. It would be a shadowy circus populated by freaks straight out of a Ray Bradbury novel to fit with the song.

This is not a commonplace record, but it should still find an audience among more adventurous listeners.

Nathalie Derome’s music has a weird mood to it. Her lovely voice and intriguing songs ensure that the listener remains interested though. Ah non! Anna has a strange voice interrupting Derome’s half spoken delivery to great effect. Ton grand nez is playful yet sinister. It’s played on an accordion which reminds me of the circus. It would be a shadowy circus populated by freaks straight out of a Ray Bradbury novel to fit with the song. This is not a commonplace record, but it should still find an audience among more adventurous listeners.

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen to musical films if you were able to get into the projectionist’s booth and play around with the pacing and speed of the reel, then this is the CD for you. Recorded as part of a 1999 festival, the album features Derome’s bizarre songs, accompanied by Guillame Dostaler and René Lussier — two musos who sound like they’ve escaped from the Tom Waits Camp For Musical Strangeness and gone on the lam to Canada. It’s strangely compelling; there’s fantastic guitar work that brings Marc Ribot’s multi-faceted approach to mind, while carnival synth and a generally fractured approach to backing a singer flesh out the songs. Certainly, Derome’s voice, as powerfully evocative as it is, would be nowhere near as successful without the freakish-sounding tunes it rides. If PJ Harvey went to the circus, she couldn’t get this level of strangeness out. Vocally, recitative is pretty much the way the show goes here. Ah Non! Anna features an intruding robotic voice, while elsewhere, Derome’s voice runs the gamut from teasing to the terrified, while familiar tunes float by in the background — I swear that Ton Grand Nez borrows from The Doors’ Love Her Madly. And somehow, amid the confusion, it works. You don’t need to speak French to enjoy this album; the pacing and the feel of the tunes is such that they’re enjoyable for reasons other than those of lyricism; however, I suspect that you need a better handle on the language than my schoolboy-level to get the full effect of such a nuanced performance. I may be missing the subtleties, but even for a relatively ignorant listener, Les quatre ronds sont allumés has a carny-backed appeal that’s hard to resist.

Nathalie Derome works on this CD together with Guillaume Dostaler (voice & amp; synthesizer) and René Lussier (guitar, daxophone & amp; voice). The CD contains 11 tracks with “parodisiaques chansons” or French chanson from the paradise. Nathalie sings all songs in French and is able to create a certain atmosphere in each song. These atmospheres are created through the use of different musical tempos within each track. The songs receive a dramatic sphere when the music is in a low tempo and the words are intimate. The track turns almost into spoken word. While joyful songs have an up tempo. The vocals are the most important parts of the song and Nathalie is absolutely brilliant in her performance, she is able to put drama and lyric into the words. Instruments (mostly 2 in each track) are absolutely only present on the background and guides the words.

As general conclusion we can say that this is a CD full of lyrical songs with very strong vocals from Nathalie and intimate guided with instruments by Guillaume and René.

Mû par des préoccupations voisines, le trio de Nathalie Derome invente de petits film sonores oniriques et particulièrement envoûtants. Voilà trois œuvres, en grande partie produites par des femmes, passionnantes de bout en bout.