Six French Songs is Olivia Chaney’s spontaneous and celebratory review of the French chanson, from medieval ballad to 60s yé-yé pop classic.

Finding themselves with a few spare evenings during a trip to NYC, Olivia and her long term collaborator and producer Thomas Bartlett set themselves the challenge of making an EP. Over two balmy summer evenings at Reservoir Studios (formerly Chic’s studio), they set down as many of Olivia’s arrangements as they could. Playing all the instruments themselves, with haunting violin parts from Sam Amidon, who happened to be in town, these recordings are a celebration of friendship, fuelled by wine, laughter and affection.

Most of the recordings are based on arrangements Olivia worked up over the previous decade, as her French catalogue expanded. After putting her version of Auprès de ma blonde on youtube, a war torn love song arranged unexpectedly with her Indian harmonium, it quickly gained a quarter of a million views. A fan in Lyon sent Olivia a field recording of Montagne, que tu es hautes, which she then recorded to acclaim with Kronos Quartet. L’homme armé, a mystical 15th century chanson, and Marguerite, a sailor’s folksong from the Channel Islands, had found their way into her regular touring repertoire. Ballade is Olivia’s take on Brassens’ setting of Villon’s homage to the brave and iconic women of the past, tinged with the transience of life. Tous les garçons et les filles updates this 60s pop hit into her ravishing and contemporary soundworld.

The distinctive and playful arrangements on Six French Songs frame afresh the unbroken tradition of French chanson–with their ‘formes fixes’ and full-blooded themes of life, death, love and longing.