Tim Gane & Sean O'Hagan - 'La Vie d'Artiste OST' (Too Pure) Released 10/09/07

A collaboration by Tim Gane of Stereolab and Sean O'Hagan of The High Llamas has produced this soundtrack to the French movie 'La Vie d' Artiste' scheduled for release after its' French screening. Having recorded together back in 1996 with the one-record band Turn On, 'La Vie d' Artiste' finds a meeting of minds and a complement of styles with a flourish of xylophone here, a violin there, sax and brass accompaniment to a pastiche of lounge-core rhythms and cocktail jazz.

Film Director Marc Fittousi had high aspirations in asking the duo to deliver an OST that captured the best of both bands in a score with the essence of Ennio Morricone, Francois de Roubaix and Piero Picooni, and whilst not a classic, there is a charm in the definitive. Following the interweaving of three separate artists - a singer looking to escape waitressing, a teacher striving to be a writer (who steals a pupil's work), and a Broadway wannabe working as a cartoon voice-over, the soundtrack reflects the threesome as they strive to their potentials with equal measures of Stereolab and High Llamas in assistance. 

'La Vie d' Artiste' the title track furnishes a sunny recurrent tune with its' string-rich lounge harmonies garnished with a High Llamas-style attention to melody, and the chugging 'Ecrivain Ou Professeur?' delivers a hit with brass and a Stephane Grappelli nuance from violin. 'Yoko Johnson' introduces a character by way of a slow pedestrian gait from percussion and violin, whilst pirouettes come with 'Metro, Boulot, Hippo' and its' John Barry signatures  and 'Soudain, Joseph Coastals!' performing a high-wire act with a Tati-esque humdinger of big brass with a saxophone and violin discourse.

'Une Nuit Passe a Ecrire' has a dosage of lounge-core from organ and string delights, but by this point there's a strong hankering for a song - boy, give us something to sing to! 'L'Audition' captures the nervous anticipation with faltering steps that breaks out into a graceful confidence, whilst the effervescence of the poppy 'Champagne!' gives cause for celebration with its' Stereolab keyboards and funky loops, the leftfield divergence of the Orientalist plinky plonky 'Alice Sur Scene' and chipper strings of 'La Consecration', to the last with the 50's inflected mirrorball of 'C'est Extra' providing the final shimmy with a slow waltzing number.

Timeless soundtracks rest primarily on the strength of its' songs, with a few exceptions - Jack Nietzche for 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' and Ennio Morricone with 'The Mission', and the hankering for a song is something that characterises this album. Melodies abound and there's a warmth and bon homie with an optimistic tone, but atonement with a wee ditty would have lifted this album. 'La Vie d' Artiste' may prove a  leftfield soundtrack with 'for collectors' stamped over it!