Amelie-les-crayons' new album La Porte Plume (the feather door) will be released in October 2007, nearly 4 years after her acclaimed debut album "Et pourquoi les Crayons ?" (Why pencils ?).
15 new songs with mostly impressive musical atmospheres and Amelie's talent as a melodist. Be prepared to meet pretty strange characters in the world of The Feather Door! "La Maigrelette" (Skinny) who flies off whenever there's wind, "L'errant" (the wanderer), a 400-year-old ghost who frightens children at night, the mysterious Train 3 which never comes, "le citronnier" (the lemon tree) which soothes heartbreaks, the Great Lady, and also the final truth about Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa's smile ! Around the Feather Door are woven extraordinary tales in an astonishing and magical musical universe.
Unexpected instruments with weird shapes and sound, beautiful compositions with harp, mandolin, bassoon, washboard, banjo, flutes ... A door to stress the metamorphosis of the 2004 Red Poppies Amélie into a new impressive singer, dancer, and tale-teller.
It took Amélie 8 months to write, compose and rehearse the new songs. She worked on it with old friend Olivier Longre who used to compose acoustic world music for TV magazines and theatre plays. The album comes up together with a new magical show which will tour from october 2007 to august 2009. Initially based on Amélie's drawings, the door-piano was eventually constructed after weeks of doubt and tests. The whole show was made up in April 2007 in Valence and was presented on a sold-out show to a crowd of absolutely delighted fans.
The Feather Door really is a complete artistic project (in the way Peter Gabriel does to some extent) with songs that are universes indeed, which makes Amelie's work so special and appreciated all over France but also in Canada, Switzerland, Belgium and even Finland where she toured these last years.
Amélie-les-crayons' name comes from Amélie's favorite French singer Bourvil's song "Les Crayons" (the pencils). Amélie-les-crayons popped up in 2004 in what was to be called the "New French Scene", an underground flow of new French artists that gathered crowds of people at concerts though receiving no interest from national media. Amélie made a huge hit at Printemps de Bourges (biggest chanson festival in France in April 2004, just before the release in June of her debut album "Et Pourquoi les Crayons?" (But Why Pencils?).
The album immediately soared up the official Top100 of record sales in France to stay there for 13 consecutive weeks. The album eventually went silver (40 000 ex). Amélie-les-crayons then began a huge tour, over 200 sold-out concerts all over France, Belgium, Switzerland and even Canada and Finland. She was given many awards on the road, such as the Double Prize in Alors Chante Festival (France) in may 2004, the Académie Charles Cros award for the album, The Felix Leclerc Prize in Montreal, The Great prize of Charleroi chanson festival in Belgium, the Sacem prize for the first album and many others.
The tour ended in August 2006 in Vienne (Amélie's hometown) in front of a crowd of 7000 people. In October 2006, she began writing the first notes of La Porte Plume.
Amélie's 2004-2006 tour mainly went through French-speaking countries though the experience in Finland was really convincing when Amelie decided to translate some of the catch phrases of the songs in Finnish turning the crowd of curious people into a group of new fans singing and clapping hands. Amélie-les-crayons gained a particular exposure worldwide and particularly in the United States after the release of PUTUMAYO's compilation "French Café" in October 2005. A world tour is being thought about for 2009 with growing interests coming from the US, Poland, Austria, Germany, Israel, Egypt, northern countries and even Korea.