ANGE, PARLE-MOI

Ange, parle-moi is a number 10 song from Mylène Farmer’s fifth studio album, Avant que l’ombre… released on April 4 2005.

This song is a prayer in this sincerest and most unpretentious form, straight from the heart. I love every second of it. In fact, I just finished my evening meditation and feel a bit out of this planet still. I decided to review my notes for this song so I can publish it tomorrow and the song just put me back to the no-space and no- time mode where I’ve just been for an hour…

Its angelic. What else to say? I hope you talk to you angels (and yes! we all have them) the way Mylene does… On the personal note, it reminds me of the very desperate time in my life when my baby daughter was in the hospital straggling for her life. I prayed to my angels and God and everything in the universe just to let my baby live…I am sure we all have those moments in life where we beg the angels for help. Today I ask them for Peace for us all. Thank you, Mylene, for the song!

For the text of this song, Mylène seems to have been strongly influenced by enigmatic poet Emily Dickinson (to whom Mylene exhibit special affinity) translated to French by Claire Malroux.

The author writes “The vastest hearts that break” when Mylène sings:

“L’ange, parle-moi! Le plus vaste des cœurs se brise” (“The angel speaks to me! / The largest of hearts breaks.”)

Then, “Decline without dishonor / Under a deceptive color” while the second verse of the song begins with: “Parle-moi! Pourquoi cette couleur trompeuse?” (“Parle-moi! / Why this deceptive color?”)

While the poet writes: “God has broken his pact with the Lamb”, Mylène sings: “Dieu a rompu Son pacte avec cet étranger!” (“God has broken / His pact with this stranger!”)

Finally, we find both in a poem by Emily Dickinson and in the words of this song the expression: “Winter provided we cultivate it” (“L’hiver pourvu qu’on le cultive”)

Some find a reference to Sappho’s: “You know what lying means” while Mylène writes: “I know what / Lying means for me” (“Je sais ce que mentir veut dire pour moi”).

Finally, as for other songs from the album Avant que l’ombre… inspired Mylène: “Angel, speak to me! / To see that in him, they were two” is reminiscent of this passage from Stephanie Plum‘s book: “During this trip, I suddenly had the impression that I was not alone, that “I was two” “.

Mylene is not shy expressing her faith in angels and the higher power. She is very emotional and hopeful that she is not forgotten but the angelic family no matter how unconventional her life choices might have been. I sense a touch of guilt (probably the Catholic inheritance) in the lyrics about her being a “stranger” to God (or vice versa?) We don’t know exactly which desperate moments of her life she has decided to turn into the song, but it is clear she is calling the help from above and she is doing it often with gratitude and love. “Et dis encore je t’aime”

Music composed and produced, arranged, keyboards and even percussions and xylophone by Laurent Boutonnat (aka Pol Ramirez del Piu)
Guitars: Jean-Marie Ecay
Basses: Philippe Chayeb
Drums: Loïc Pontieux
Piano: Yvan Cassar

String arrangements: Jean-Jacques Charles and Graham Preskett
Taking of sound and mixing: Jérôme Devoise

Ange, parle-moi was sung on all the dates of the show Before the Shadow … in Bercy from January 13 to 29, 2006. It is such a beautiful and sensitive performance! As perhaps the entire concert – the most vulnerable throughout the entire set of songs despite the provocative “Shut up!” in the opening of Peut-être toi . The concert is an elixir for the Soul.

For this song, the stage images created by Alain Escalle represent stained glass windows and this painting required close collaboration with the team managing the lights as well as adjustments during rehearsals so that there is “a kind of darkness and that the light is born from the stained-glass windows ” giving the impression of being in a church.

The album Avant que l’ombre … was recorded in France, at the studio Guillaume Tell.

Mylène and Laurent Boutonnat worked almost a year on this album. Mylène also indicated during her press conference on December 17, 2004: “We are almost finalizing this album, in mixing, then.”

A double album was initially planned but several titles could not have been recorded or finalized for a surprising reason, purely ‘financial’. The recording and mixing studio had only been reserved until December 31, 2004 inclusive. Some of these titles would have been reworked to be included in the next album, Point de Suture, in 2008.

Avant que lombre… is Mylène’s first album which includes a hidden track (Nobody knows).

Mylène was less involved in the composition of this album compared to the previous Innamoramento. Indeed, she only co-signs the music of  L’Amour est rien… with Laurent Boutonnat who of course gave birth to all the other scores of the opus.

” There are undoubtedly, compared to the other albums, a lot more guitars. ” (Mylène Farmer – Press conference – 12/17/2004)

“I know that we like Mylène and I a lot the mixes. It’s an album where there are a lot of musicians, a mixture of musicians, electronic sounds. A lot of acoustics, a little electronics. There are a lot of acoustic instruments. ” (Laurent Boutonnat – Lecture by press – 12/17/2004)

The artistic production is ensured for all the titles by Laurent Boutonnat.

“In terms of production, maybe there is a small change. Me, I remain the same, therefore the same atmosphere … ” (Mylène Farmer – Press conference – 12/17/2004)

The press is also divided but we note very favorable reviews (maybe, the angel helped out?) as it is rather unusual for Mylène used to be beaten up for every new release. And its just so ridiculous but perhaps it proves Hadja Nasreddin wisdom saying “No stones are thrown at the fruitless tree. The better the fruits, the larger the stones”

“Mylène Farmer calmed and radiant” title “The world” which writes that the “singularity of the musical and thematic universe of Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat is not upset but refined” in “a balance between song to dream or to cry”. The daily also notes that the voice of Mylène which could in the past be “drowned in an orchestra” is “here conquering, full” passing through “an extended palette.”

Same enthusiasm of “Rolling Stone” with regard to Mylène’s voice which “passes, with this grace which belongs only to her, from a high-pitched or whispered song to a deeper voice and a very mannered articulation.”

A change also highlighted by” Here “under the spell of” Mylène’s unique voice trickle blowing the words like confidences that one imagines being the only one to share with her “without forgetting the” quality of the texts “to the point that the weekly title:” Obsédée textuelle.”

with English translation

The photoshoot with Dominique Issermann took place in the Château de Millemont located in the Yvelines. Mylène will return there at the end of 2011 for a new photo shoot with Bruno Aveillan for the magazine “Citizen K”.

The place since then was used for many shootings: the film “Marie-Antoinette” by Sofia Coppola (2006), “Coco avant Chanel” with Audrey Tautou (2009), the French television series “Braquo” on Canal + (2009), a photoshoot with Olivia Ruiz and also an advertisement for the “H&M” brand with Vanessa Paradis (2013).

What affected and inspired Mylene to open herself up in such a new light we most likely won’t know for sure but we know that she has been transformed since meeting Benoît di Sabatino in 2002 and perhaps being in loving satisfyingly relationship can do that.

“He (Benoît di Sabatino) is a balanced and creative man who knows how to make her happy. Before him, Mylène locked herself in tortured or ephemeral relationships. She is someone who doubts herself, finds it difficult to grant her confidence, and Benoît was able to reassure her. Even if the album Avant que l‘ombre (2005) is not directly dedicated to him, he is its main source of inspiration. ” (Hugues Royer in the book “Mylène”)

“I am lonely, independent, free, but rarely alone … The other is essential to my life. And to my mental health,” confides the singer in a long interview published in the last issue of Gala magazine. Interview in which she also evokes her absence from social networks: “I prefer to let people express themselves freely, without intervening. What I have to share is in my albums, my concerts, my clips, more rarely, in a few interviews. “

It is well known, to live happily, it is better to live in hiding. And it is indeed Mylene’s motto.

Speaking of importance of the other, I have promised you a glimpse into the astrology. And I sure stand by my word. 😊

read Mylene astrological portrait HERE

read Mylene and Benoît astrological compatibility report HERE

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lyrics with translation

L'ange, parle-moi!
Le plus vaste des cœurs se brise
Parle-moi!
L'hiver pourvu qu'on le cultive
Dans cette pièce
Nul semble respirer
Ici, c'est un abri qui m'a été donné!
Don't let me die, l'ange
Don't let me die, l'archange
Tu sais le temps qu'il faut pour apaiser nos peines
Don't let me die
Et dis encore je t'aime
Parle-moi!
Pourquoi cette couleur trompeuse?
Ange, parle-moi!
De voir qu'en lui, ils étaient deux
Je sais ce que mentir veut dire pour moi
Tu sais, Dieu a rompu
Son pacte avec cet étranger!
Don't let me die, l'ange
Don't let me die, l'archange
Tu sais le temps qu'il faut pour apaiser nos peines
Don't let me die
Et dis encore je t'aime
Parle-moi, parle-moi, parle-moi
Dis-moi si tu es là
Ange, parle-moi, parle-moi
Dis-moi si tu es là
Parle-moi, parle-moi…

Angel, talk to me!
The largest of hearts is breaking
Talk to me!
Winter as long as it is cultivated
In this room
No one seems to breathe
Here, it is a shelter that was given to me!
Don't let me die, the angel
Don't let me die, the archangel
You know the time it takes to soothe our sorrows
Don't let me die
And say I love you again
Talk to me!
Why this deceptive color?
Angel, talk to me!
To see that in him, they were two
I know what lying means to me
You know, God broke
His pact with this stranger!
Don't let me die, the angel
Don't let me die, the archangel
You know the time it takes to soothe our sorrows
Don't let me die
And say I love you again
Talk to me, talk to me, talk to me
Tell me if you are there
Angel, talk to me, talk to me
Tell me if you are there
Talk to me, talk to me ...