Exposition, Eaux-Fortes et Méandres is the 8th album released by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 darkwave

Darkwave

Dark Wave or darkwave is a music genre that began in the late 1970s, coinciding with the popularity of New Wave and post-punk. Building on those basic principles, dark wave added dark, introspective lyrics and an undertone of sorrow for some bands...

 band Collection d'Arnell Andréa

Collection d'Arnell Andrea

Collection d'Arnell~Andréa is a French darkwave band founded by Jean-Christophe d'Arnell , Pascal Andréa, and Chloé St Liphard in 1986. Andréa left the band shortly after its founding, before its first performance. However, d'Arnell left Andréa's name in the band name. Their music features...

. The concept for the album is based on pianist Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...

's 1874 Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite in ten movements composed for piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874.The suite is Mussorgsky's most famous piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists...

piano suite, which in Mussorgsky created 10 different piano songs based on Russian artist Viktor Hartmann

Viktor Hartmann

Viktor Alexandrovich Hartmann was a Russian architect and painter. He was associated with the Abramtsevo Colony, purchased and preserved beginning in 1870 by Savva Mamontov, and the Russian Revival.-Life:Victor-Edouard Hartmann was born in St...

. The majority of the tracks on Exposition, Eaux-Fortes et Méandres are based on 19th century paintings. These paintings had darker themes and included works from Arnold Böcklin

Arnold Böcklin

Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss symbolist painter.-Life and art:He was born at Basel. His father, Christian Frederick Böcklin , was descended from an old family of Schaffhausen, and engaged in the silk trade. His mother, Ursula Lippe, was a native of the same city...

's Isle of the Dead (painting)

Isle of the Dead (painting)

Isle of the Dead is the best known painting of Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin . Prints of the work were very popular in central Europe in the early 20th century — Vladimir Nabokov observed that they were to be "found in every Berlin home." Freud, Lenin, and Clemenceau all had prints of it...

, Edward Robert Hughes

Edward Robert Hughes

Edward Robert Hughes was an English painter who worked in a style influenced by Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism. Some of his best known works are Midsummer Eve and Night With Her Train of Stars. Hughes was the nephew of Arthur Hughes. He often used watercolour/gouache...

, and John Everett Millais

John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...

's Ophelia

Ophelia (painting)

Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed between 1851-52. Currently held in the Tate Britain in London, it depicts Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark....

. The songs feature vocals, guitar, keyboards, cello, and viola. The album cover art and title track, Les Méandres, are based on Richard Boutin's 1999 painting Crepuscule sur la Loire. Boutin also photographed the band for the album's liner notes.

Track listing

1. "Les Sombres Plis de l'âme" – 4:40
2. "The Monk on the Shore" – 6:18
3. "Les Herbes mortes" – 6:16
4. "Les Méandres" – 6:09
5. "The Long Shadow" – 4:53
6. "I Can't See Your Face" – 6:07
7. "Les Catacombes" – 4:00
8. "Into Flowers" – 5:33
9. "Crowns of Golden Corn" – 4:03
10. "L'Eau des mauves" – 5:14
11. "The Island of the Dead" – 5:07

Musicians

• Chloé St Liphard : Voices
• Carine Grieg : Keyboards
  Musical keyboard
  A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
  
  
• Thibault d'Aboville : Viola
  Viola
  The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
  
  , Voices
• Jean-Chrisophe d'Arnell : Keyboards, drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , Voices
• Xavier Gaschignard : Cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  
• Vincent Magnien : Guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s
• Franz Torres-Quevedo : Bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , Voices

Graphic artists

• Christophe Poly : liner notes
  Liner notes
  Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
  
  
• Vincent Lacape : liner notes, band photo
• Richard Boutin : cover art, band photo

Production

• Pierre-Emmanuel Meriaud (Studio Nyima) : engineering, mixing and programming
• Terence (Studio Nyima) : mastering