Avignon 2015 / Portrait in Berlin
Contrebrassens, against all odds...
Karine PROST, Published July 24, 2015
The songs of Georges Brassens, a woman, and a double bass. Quite a challenge, taken on by an amazing artist who gives us a moment of pure happiness, somewhere between a tribute to Brassens and a reappropriation of his songs - something rare.
She doesn’t have the voice or the guitar of Brassens. Nor the mustache, for that matter. But she still claims to sing the great man’s songs, from behind her double bass. And barefoot. With humour and a mischievous eye. She claims to sing Brassens... and does it like nobody else. With talent and freshness. With respect and malice. With femininity. And the surprise is masterful.
With her deep, clear voice, she opens an umbrella over us. Her bass depicts the rain drops falling on the asphalt. And their common gentleness convey the magic of the moment. Anyone who wouldn’t be into covers would definitely let themselves fall for the universe drawn by Pauline Dupuy and her beautifully mastered voice.
Plucked or bowed, her strings help her sing songs of love. Brassens's words, Brassens’s songs. But it’s definitely Pauline’s soul. What she does is quite amazing - she does everything at once, reviving Brassens and forgetting about him. She appropriates his texts with humility, dresses them with her superb voice. She accompanies herself with her double bass, adding here and there a few dissonances, a few rhythm changes. And it all seems obvious. Everything in its right place.
This is a remarkable trick, which she does nonchalantly. With just a light beam, a word, a mischievous joke, or a loving look on her beautiful instrument. Pauline Dupuy adds a musical supplement to the songs. Without damaging their essence. Hard to believe? Probably. So here’s a piece of advice: go check her out...
Pauline Dupuy rhymes with Brassens
La Marseillaise: July 23rd 2015 by L.Thierry
The fans of Brassens won’t believe what they see: this is a true recreation of his anthology. The actress and her instrument are only one, as they tackle Brassens’s work in a very unusual way, if not iconoclastic, in a show filled with pranks and joyful jokes. The emotion is constantly palpable for over an hour...
The show is not one of those pale copies we still see at every street corner in Sète! “L’orage”, “Pénélope”, “La non demande en mariage”, “J’me suis fait tout p’tit”, “Les amoureux des bancs publics”... I also heard “Le parapluie”, “L’amandier”, “Cupidon”, “Embrasse les tous, Dieu reconnaîtra les siens”, “Cette fille est trop vilaine il me la faut”, “La complainte des filles de joie” and “Sur l’pont des arts”.
L.Thierry
Didier Blons, Radio Albatros, July 10th 2015
"We’ve already seen quite a few pretty good shows dedicated to Brassens; usually, Brassens fans enjoy the words of the Sète-born poet, and even the most musically uneducated agree not to have a dig at his songs. Pauline Dupuy is very talented: what she showed on stage was a duet with a double bass, re-reading his poetry with a feminine standpoint. Barefoot, she started whispering "Le parapluie", accompanying herself with a few notes stitched with her bow like so many raindrops on the verse, and harp effects on the chorus. We were immediately conquered. The tone was right, the charm works, taking us off balance. We knew the gruff man, hiding his modesty behind his mustache and guitar skills. Pauline Dupuy’s finesse and malice seamlessly stress the nobility and tenderness of his words. Besides her instrumental prowess, the musician excels and her happy double bass is a nice counterpart to the delicate, accurate, and exquisite singer’s interpretation. Pauline Dupuy is an accomplished artist who generously gives these songs meaning, body and a voice.
Regard'Arts Luana Kim
On the stage, all you can see is a double bass lying on its side. A young woman dressed in black comes in, barefoot, and takes the double bass... as well as a great challenge - that of playing personal and unusual interpretations of some the least known songs of Brassens.
What follows is a spellbinding melee between a fine young woman and a big, heavy instrument. The resulting harmony is impressive and surprising.
Through her female voice, one that is loud and clear, Georges’ provocative and mischievous tenderness can be felt. And humor is also present, as in the lines in the song “95 fois sur 100”...
Pauline Dupuy is an agile and confident singer.
The words, her fingers, and the strings keep slamming.
We want more!
Théâtre du Blog, Stéphanie Ruffier, July 8th 2015
Was Georges Brassens a little misogynistic? Now, the most famous moustachioed French singer was rehabilitated by Pauline Dupuy, one of his fervent admirers, in an absolutely delightful concert. Along with her double bass, the young performer is clever enough to cover his most little-known songs.
With her hair bobby pinned in a simple French roll, in a black wrap dress, barefoot Pauline Dupuy revisits Brassens’s songs using the exquisite theme of women. All naughty girls, divine fiancées, virgins and whore are invited to the party. Playful Pauline Dupuy knows how to create a variety of atmospheres, be naughty, or even educational.
The first notes of each song kick off a little blind test. This is one of the pleasures of this kind of exercise, where beautiful songs can surprise us with original, though respectful reinterpretations.
Implicitly, the weather is the surprise guest of the show. From the “small corner of an umbrella” to stories of and “storm and lightning”, through verses about the wind lifting skirts, this theme brings freshness to the recital, and also goes well with the capacities of this imposing instrument, whose bow can suddenly give birth to profound gales and tragic gusts. When “Cupid doesn’t care”, on the contrary, the double bass is an enchanting mischievous touch. We feel the public acquiesce cheerfully the humorous study on female pleasure: "Ninety-five percent of the time, women are bored when they fuck”.
We also enjoyed Pauline Dupuy’s commitment when depicting the lives of prostitutes.
If irreverence to the statue of Georges Brassens is quite measured after all, we still liked to put on women's glasses to watch Brassens’s tasty jazzy witticisms replayed.
A very enjoyable evening...
Karine PROST, Published July 24, 2015
The songs of Georges Brassens, a woman, and a double bass. Quite a challenge, taken on by an amazing artist who gives us a moment of pure happiness, somewhere between a tribute to Brassens and a reappropriation of his songs - something rare.
She doesn’t have the voice or the guitar of Brassens. Nor the mustache, for that matter. But she still claims to sing the great man’s songs, from behind her double bass. And barefoot. With humour and a mischievous eye. She claims to sing Brassens... and does it like nobody else. With talent and freshness. With respect and malice. With femininity. And the surprise is masterful.
With her deep, clear voice, she opens an umbrella over us. Her bass depicts the rain drops falling on the asphalt. And their common gentleness convey the magic of the moment. Anyone who wouldn’t be into covers would definitely let themselves fall for the universe drawn by Pauline Dupuy and her beautifully mastered voice.
Plucked or bowed, her strings help her sing songs of love. Brassens's words, Brassens’s songs. But it’s definitely Pauline’s soul. What she does is quite amazing - she does everything at once, reviving Brassens and forgetting about him. She appropriates his texts with humility, dresses them with her superb voice. She accompanies herself with her double bass, adding here and there a few dissonances, a few rhythm changes. And it all seems obvious. Everything in its right place.
This is a remarkable trick, which she does nonchalantly. With just a light beam, a word, a mischievous joke, or a loving look on her beautiful instrument. Pauline Dupuy adds a musical supplement to the songs. Without damaging their essence. Hard to believe? Probably. So here’s a piece of advice: go check her out...
Pauline Dupuy rhymes with Brassens
La Marseillaise: July 23rd 2015 by L.Thierry
The fans of Brassens won’t believe what they see: this is a true recreation of his anthology. The actress and her instrument are only one, as they tackle Brassens’s work in a very unusual way, if not iconoclastic, in a show filled with pranks and joyful jokes. The emotion is constantly palpable for over an hour...
The show is not one of those pale copies we still see at every street corner in Sète! “L’orage”, “Pénélope”, “La non demande en mariage”, “J’me suis fait tout p’tit”, “Les amoureux des bancs publics”... I also heard “Le parapluie”, “L’amandier”, “Cupidon”, “Embrasse les tous, Dieu reconnaîtra les siens”, “Cette fille est trop vilaine il me la faut”, “La complainte des filles de joie” and “Sur l’pont des arts”.
L.Thierry
Didier Blons, Radio Albatros, July 10th 2015
"We’ve already seen quite a few pretty good shows dedicated to Brassens; usually, Brassens fans enjoy the words of the Sète-born poet, and even the most musically uneducated agree not to have a dig at his songs. Pauline Dupuy is very talented: what she showed on stage was a duet with a double bass, re-reading his poetry with a feminine standpoint. Barefoot, she started whispering "Le parapluie", accompanying herself with a few notes stitched with her bow like so many raindrops on the verse, and harp effects on the chorus. We were immediately conquered. The tone was right, the charm works, taking us off balance. We knew the gruff man, hiding his modesty behind his mustache and guitar skills. Pauline Dupuy’s finesse and malice seamlessly stress the nobility and tenderness of his words. Besides her instrumental prowess, the musician excels and her happy double bass is a nice counterpart to the delicate, accurate, and exquisite singer’s interpretation. Pauline Dupuy is an accomplished artist who generously gives these songs meaning, body and a voice.
Regard'Arts Luana Kim
On the stage, all you can see is a double bass lying on its side. A young woman dressed in black comes in, barefoot, and takes the double bass... as well as a great challenge - that of playing personal and unusual interpretations of some the least known songs of Brassens.
What follows is a spellbinding melee between a fine young woman and a big, heavy instrument. The resulting harmony is impressive and surprising.
Through her female voice, one that is loud and clear, Georges’ provocative and mischievous tenderness can be felt. And humor is also present, as in the lines in the song “95 fois sur 100”...
Pauline Dupuy is an agile and confident singer.
The words, her fingers, and the strings keep slamming.
We want more!
Théâtre du Blog, Stéphanie Ruffier, July 8th 2015
Was Georges Brassens a little misogynistic? Now, the most famous moustachioed French singer was rehabilitated by Pauline Dupuy, one of his fervent admirers, in an absolutely delightful concert. Along with her double bass, the young performer is clever enough to cover his most little-known songs.
With her hair bobby pinned in a simple French roll, in a black wrap dress, barefoot Pauline Dupuy revisits Brassens’s songs using the exquisite theme of women. All naughty girls, divine fiancées, virgins and whore are invited to the party. Playful Pauline Dupuy knows how to create a variety of atmospheres, be naughty, or even educational.
The first notes of each song kick off a little blind test. This is one of the pleasures of this kind of exercise, where beautiful songs can surprise us with original, though respectful reinterpretations.
Implicitly, the weather is the surprise guest of the show. From the “small corner of an umbrella” to stories of and “storm and lightning”, through verses about the wind lifting skirts, this theme brings freshness to the recital, and also goes well with the capacities of this imposing instrument, whose bow can suddenly give birth to profound gales and tragic gusts. When “Cupid doesn’t care”, on the contrary, the double bass is an enchanting mischievous touch. We feel the public acquiesce cheerfully the humorous study on female pleasure: "Ninety-five percent of the time, women are bored when they fuck”.
We also enjoyed Pauline Dupuy’s commitment when depicting the lives of prostitutes.
If irreverence to the statue of Georges Brassens is quite measured after all, we still liked to put on women's glasses to watch Brassens’s tasty jazzy witticisms replayed.
A very enjoyable evening...
Portrait
Petit Journal de Berlin, 1st Jully 2015
Link to the article: http://www.lepetitjournal.com/berlin/communaute/portraits-de-francophones/219852-pauline-dupuy-l-union-sacree-de-georges-brassens-et-d-une-contrebasse _ _
PAULINE DUPUY - The sacred union of Georges Brassens and a double bass
For nearly six years since Pauline Dupuy has dedicated her voice to Contrebrassens. Based in Berlin for a few years, the young French woman rediscovers the poetry of Brassens in an amazing trio: "Brassens, my double bass, and me!" Le Petit Journal Berlin met her at the intimate concert she gave last Friday at Hochparterre Gallery, a few days before going to the Festival d'Avignon.
In a small exhibition space hidden deep in a small courtyard in the heart of Kreuzberg, in which we would feel almost like home, the singer and musician Pauline welcomed her guests, a cup of jasmine tea in her hand. We chatted in the narrow kitchen used as a hall, before the show.
Barefoot Pauline embraces her instrument. Song after song, it almost feels like a theatre play: the poetry of Brassens tells stories, and is as much a thrill and a laugh to the artist than to her audience. These are stories of love, non-love, gay fantasies or solemn tributes. They are an opportunity to rediscover the words of our childhood, but also those that we know less. With a sly smile, Pauline plays with her double bass, getting closer to it and moving it away from her, truly taking a human form. The young woman takes a few breaks, during which she presents her instrument. "Nice to meet you!", the guests say, admiring with wonder all the sensuality of the curved back of the bass, its lines of wooded hips, its soul.
Brassens, an accidental lightning strike
Originally from the heart of Auvergne, Pauline grew up in Aurillac until she was 18. She always has had the love of music in her. Even learning the recorder was not a problem for her! On the contrary: "I really wanted to learn and read notes, despite the bad memories of everyone, I was having a great time playing my flute, she says with a smile; I started singing when I was little too but secretly for a long time…”
After several years of violin, she felt like changing. "I was a teenager, so at that time I wanted to play the electric bass, to rock out with friends, but you had to buy a bass amp, and I had no friends to make music with!" Next door to her violin class, a double bass teacher opened a class, giving her the opportunity to venture to other stringed horizons. The idyll between Pauline and her double bass then continued at the Saint Etienne Conservatory.
Brassens appeared only later, by chance. Before him, she had never even tried personal creations, she played in bands, accompanying musicians. "Friends of mine hooked me on Brassens. They were fans, and sang songs every day, all the time. I then realized how his songs were full of stories.”
French singer Pauline then started to adapt his songs with her bass: "I did not know his work by heart, so I was pretty loose when I started off. I just let go, instinctively guided by what I liked, what sounded right". After working on ten songs, she played them live and many encouraging returns prompted her to extend her love affair.
A variety of artistic experiences
It is not only out of an "appetite for risk" that Pauline chose to settle in Berlin, but also because the "European Capital of Culture" is associated with the old cliché cabarets, "somewhat phantasmagoric images that inspire me." Accustomed to larger French stages, Pauline discovered in Berlin the promiscuity of small bars where gigs are not amped. "I learned a lot from it, being there with my somewhat serious project, in bars with people smoking cigarettes and having a beer, remembers Pauline, but audiences are great in Berlin: people are curious, receptive, sometimes they like what they hear, sometimes they don’t, but they still remain very respectful.” Today, the musician is expanding her network in Berlin and Germany, through Aurélie Païta, aka Mrs. Zik, Berlin-based management and booking agency, to European horizons.
With a debut album already released in June 2014, Pauline multiplies experimentations. After graduating with a Bachelor in theater, she has regularly worked with theater companies, as a musician but also an actress at times. The singer also plays in various bands, from pop to folk, through rebetiko (Greek traditional music sometimes called "the blues of Greece").
Recently, she worked more and more with the British artist Michael Wookey, accompanying him on many songs. "There is a very strong artistic connection between us. We stimulate and support each other, it makes us very creative." The two musicians met almost three years ago and quickly began to share the stage, many times trying stuff together. "Mike" was very involved in the making of the first Contrebrassens album, and Pauline would now like to go even further: "I would love to develop the universe we create on our records, I do not know how yet, but I would like to do that live too." Next step: the Avignon Festival. The singer also has international ambitions. She is planning to make a second record in collaboration with her friend Michael Wookey, which this time could be used for playing abroad. "I'd like to reach a wider audience, find a distributor who supports us and it has a network in India, Asia, Latin America...". The eyes of the young woman are sparkling with enthusiasm. "In the next two years, it would be great if everything snapped into place and if we made a major international tour!". In the meantime, the Avignon Festival is awaiting the bassist for the next three weeks. From July 4 to 26, twenty concerts are planned at the Carnot Theatre. This is the first time the French singer will be playing at Avignon. "I'm glad to go there! I hope the shows are packed! And I hope people from the profession attend; it would open doors for me." She will be joined by Michael Wookey for three days. In order to face the marathon looming, Pauline was prepared with the assistance of the Parisian stage director Damien Dutrait, who says: "It's always difficult for me to enter a world that is no not mine. But with Pauline, it goes very simply, first because I love Brassens and also because I am touched by the way she approaches his texts like poetry." A big fan of Georges Brassens songs since his childhood, the director admits having initially been suspicious of the Contrebrassens project. But the alchemy was quickly established with the singer: "She interprets with a great sense of innocence and tenderness. She is very inventive, her work is musically rich, extremely soft and complete, with a sense of humour: exactly what I like." Everything seems to presage an increasing success in the future for the Berliner.
Sarah Diep (www.lepetitjournal.com/berlin)
Http : //www.contrebrassens.com/
Link to the article: http://www.lepetitjournal.com/berlin/communaute/portraits-de-francophones/219852-pauline-dupuy-l-union-sacree-de-georges-brassens-et-d-une-contrebasse _ _
PAULINE DUPUY - The sacred union of Georges Brassens and a double bass
For nearly six years since Pauline Dupuy has dedicated her voice to Contrebrassens. Based in Berlin for a few years, the young French woman rediscovers the poetry of Brassens in an amazing trio: "Brassens, my double bass, and me!" Le Petit Journal Berlin met her at the intimate concert she gave last Friday at Hochparterre Gallery, a few days before going to the Festival d'Avignon.
In a small exhibition space hidden deep in a small courtyard in the heart of Kreuzberg, in which we would feel almost like home, the singer and musician Pauline welcomed her guests, a cup of jasmine tea in her hand. We chatted in the narrow kitchen used as a hall, before the show.
Barefoot Pauline embraces her instrument. Song after song, it almost feels like a theatre play: the poetry of Brassens tells stories, and is as much a thrill and a laugh to the artist than to her audience. These are stories of love, non-love, gay fantasies or solemn tributes. They are an opportunity to rediscover the words of our childhood, but also those that we know less. With a sly smile, Pauline plays with her double bass, getting closer to it and moving it away from her, truly taking a human form. The young woman takes a few breaks, during which she presents her instrument. "Nice to meet you!", the guests say, admiring with wonder all the sensuality of the curved back of the bass, its lines of wooded hips, its soul.
Brassens, an accidental lightning strike
Originally from the heart of Auvergne, Pauline grew up in Aurillac until she was 18. She always has had the love of music in her. Even learning the recorder was not a problem for her! On the contrary: "I really wanted to learn and read notes, despite the bad memories of everyone, I was having a great time playing my flute, she says with a smile; I started singing when I was little too but secretly for a long time…”
After several years of violin, she felt like changing. "I was a teenager, so at that time I wanted to play the electric bass, to rock out with friends, but you had to buy a bass amp, and I had no friends to make music with!" Next door to her violin class, a double bass teacher opened a class, giving her the opportunity to venture to other stringed horizons. The idyll between Pauline and her double bass then continued at the Saint Etienne Conservatory.
Brassens appeared only later, by chance. Before him, she had never even tried personal creations, she played in bands, accompanying musicians. "Friends of mine hooked me on Brassens. They were fans, and sang songs every day, all the time. I then realized how his songs were full of stories.”
French singer Pauline then started to adapt his songs with her bass: "I did not know his work by heart, so I was pretty loose when I started off. I just let go, instinctively guided by what I liked, what sounded right". After working on ten songs, she played them live and many encouraging returns prompted her to extend her love affair.
A variety of artistic experiences
It is not only out of an "appetite for risk" that Pauline chose to settle in Berlin, but also because the "European Capital of Culture" is associated with the old cliché cabarets, "somewhat phantasmagoric images that inspire me." Accustomed to larger French stages, Pauline discovered in Berlin the promiscuity of small bars where gigs are not amped. "I learned a lot from it, being there with my somewhat serious project, in bars with people smoking cigarettes and having a beer, remembers Pauline, but audiences are great in Berlin: people are curious, receptive, sometimes they like what they hear, sometimes they don’t, but they still remain very respectful.” Today, the musician is expanding her network in Berlin and Germany, through Aurélie Païta, aka Mrs. Zik, Berlin-based management and booking agency, to European horizons.
With a debut album already released in June 2014, Pauline multiplies experimentations. After graduating with a Bachelor in theater, she has regularly worked with theater companies, as a musician but also an actress at times. The singer also plays in various bands, from pop to folk, through rebetiko (Greek traditional music sometimes called "the blues of Greece").
Recently, she worked more and more with the British artist Michael Wookey, accompanying him on many songs. "There is a very strong artistic connection between us. We stimulate and support each other, it makes us very creative." The two musicians met almost three years ago and quickly began to share the stage, many times trying stuff together. "Mike" was very involved in the making of the first Contrebrassens album, and Pauline would now like to go even further: "I would love to develop the universe we create on our records, I do not know how yet, but I would like to do that live too." Next step: the Avignon Festival. The singer also has international ambitions. She is planning to make a second record in collaboration with her friend Michael Wookey, which this time could be used for playing abroad. "I'd like to reach a wider audience, find a distributor who supports us and it has a network in India, Asia, Latin America...". The eyes of the young woman are sparkling with enthusiasm. "In the next two years, it would be great if everything snapped into place and if we made a major international tour!". In the meantime, the Avignon Festival is awaiting the bassist for the next three weeks. From July 4 to 26, twenty concerts are planned at the Carnot Theatre. This is the first time the French singer will be playing at Avignon. "I'm glad to go there! I hope the shows are packed! And I hope people from the profession attend; it would open doors for me." She will be joined by Michael Wookey for three days. In order to face the marathon looming, Pauline was prepared with the assistance of the Parisian stage director Damien Dutrait, who says: "It's always difficult for me to enter a world that is no not mine. But with Pauline, it goes very simply, first because I love Brassens and also because I am touched by the way she approaches his texts like poetry." A big fan of Georges Brassens songs since his childhood, the director admits having initially been suspicious of the Contrebrassens project. But the alchemy was quickly established with the singer: "She interprets with a great sense of innocence and tenderness. She is very inventive, her work is musically rich, extremely soft and complete, with a sense of humour: exactly what I like." Everything seems to presage an increasing success in the future for the Berliner.
Sarah Diep (www.lepetitjournal.com/berlin)
Http : //www.contrebrassens.com/
