Les Enchantés

ENG
The enchanted ones
11 songs

I am presenting here short fictional stories inspired by daily news in the form of songs, very much in the style of popular songs of a bygone era, where news items were orally transmitted. The songs are short with a tormenting chorus and sung from the point of view of the interpreter : ‘I’, therefore involving directly the character of the story.
I am interested in developing fragments of short stories, and experience their ability to circulate within a popular context as well as how they settle within the imaginary of tthe listener. The stories are deformed, therefore diluting the authenticity of the tale, they mediate between the familiar and the uncanny.
Their rhythm corresponds to the one of nursery rhymes and popular songs with a chorus.
English songs below


FR
Les Enchantés
11 chansons

À l’instar des chansons populaires des siècles derniers, qui retranscrivaient oralement les faits-divers et l’actualité de l’époque, j’élabore de courtes fictions proches des faits-divers qui se présentent sous forme de chanson. Celle-ci est à la première personne, impliquant ainsi directement le protagoniste de l’histoire, et est très courte au refrain lancinant.
Ce qui m’intéresse, c’est de développer de petits morceaux d’histoire et d’expérimenter leur capacité de diffusion, en l’occurrence ici, populaire, tout en s’ancrant fortement dans l’imaginaire du spectateur. Les histoires y sont déformées, diluant ainsi l’authenticité du récit. Ces narrations jouent le rôle d’échangeur entre le familier et le remarquable, voire l’effroyable.
Le rythme des chansons est celui des chansons populaires à refrain.


ENG Songs

Parts
One part was found
Then a second, and a third

I tend to cut things off
Those who pass by me

However they look
I don’t discriminate

What I like is slicing
I did it to my family


His dear head
Since I loved him so much x2
They are going to cut my head off

A fine answer they say
To what was found under my bed

Staring so much at his face x2
Made me want an image of him

The head of my beloved
Last night I cut off

Every night I would look at it x2
That beloved head

And to mine you could do
Whatever you want


Jean Malver
What a horrifying crime
It is to kill one’s fellow

I killed the one who shared my name
The poor man also looked like me

Can you think of anything more troubling
Than meeting everyday this other ‘I’

His suspicious face,
I quickly dealt with

I shot him dead
Instantly in his bed

Remember the two Jean malver
Both ended up in hell.


The beloved
It’s unavoidable, every night
Takes place the appaling crime

Barely asleep
I can’t stop clawing

The sweet and gentle friend
Who invites himself into my bed

The beloved’s body
Is then scratched away

Yesterday I was arrested
I will no longer have guests

I will end up
With no one in my bed


The necklace
For my tender fiancée
Once I bought

A wonderful necklace
She couldn’t get rid of it

Slowly I force fed her
She died, strangled


Disintegrated
Since I caressed him too much
He desintegrated to death

Is it my fault
If his skin didn’t resist

Upon his heart continually licked
Appeared a hole

My gentle hand dived into it
And took his heart

He passed away
Soon, so will I

My heart is no longer free
And you can hang me.


Marie-Jeanne
The cruel Marie-Jeanne
That is how they call me

Fresh out from the cradle
I knew how to handle a knife

My father, a butcher
Taught me the tricks of the trade

Among those wanting to deflower me
Many lost their noses

You can condemn me
But I will remain a virgin

Marie-Jeanne the maiden
And so she should stay


My three sisters
My three sisters were found
With their hair entangled

For a long time I have been accused
Of locking it together

I was simply happy with
Scaring them throughout the night

Fear caused them to mingle
Their hair had to be cut

Since then they are shaven
And it has never grown back

And I was imprisoned
For such cruelty


My father, my mother
Both my father and mother I killed
I was relentless

I could no longer bear their sight
I sent them to hell

Tomorrow my eyes will be burnt
The executioner will take my virginity

Can you think of anything more cruel
Than what is about to happen to me

I demand the death sentence
So that I escape from this sad fate

Hear me and have mercy
Send me to the stake.


A smell
I committed the vile crime
To which I lost my soul

Such a stench came from them
Enough to upset one’s stomach

This unbearable smell
Induced the crime

I gathered them all
In a sinister house

Where I organised a diner
After such a feast

They finished walled-up
The smell disappeared


A few hundred fingers
A few hundred fingers
Were found at my place

I collect them
Since I was a newborn

Don’t ask me why
The answer I do not know

I prefer the middle finger
placed in the freezer

very tidily piled up
they remain my only trophies

Well, the owners
still have their third finger