Arabesque

Jane Birkin Arabesque available for the first time on vinyl. Released as a special 2 LP Set. On Arabesque actress turned singer Jane Birkin reworks another set of songs by her former lover and mentor Serge Gainsbourg. It follows on from 1996's Versions Jane. This time she's accompanied, live in Paris, by the Algerian and Romany arrangements of a North African band, and their quavering violin and tinny, clattering percussion form an appropriately exotic backdrop to Gainsbourg's examinations of passionate relationships and the sweet minutiae of love. Birkin, her entrance occasionally heralded by the complex and vibrant chanting of Moumen, is not technically the greatest of singers, but she works hard to extract meaning and emotion from the songs, thus lending depth to Gainsbourg's sometimes overwrought phrasings.