In 2014 Yann Tiersen – the French musician best known for his multimillion selling soundtrack for Amélie – was cycling with his wife Émelie through Sinkyone Wilderness Park in northern California. They realised a mountain lion was stalking them: for 20 or so minutes it followed them until a car, the first they’d seen in hours, drove past and disrupted it. They cycled on in fear, wondering if it was still in pursuit. “For the next six hours we were thinking ‘this is the end’,” recalls Yann. “That we will end up eaten by this mountain lion.”
It was a life-changing experience. “It shifted our understanding of the world,” says Yann. “We realised we were ignorant of where we were. Knowing the environment can save your life. It was stupid to be there with …” they descend into laughter as they recall what may have piqued the interest of the lion, “… pastrami sandwiches in our bags.”
Almost a decade on, the pair are more attuned to their surroundings than ever as they are in the middle of an ocean tour via sailboat. “With sailing, you need to be aware of the elements,” says Émilie. “Otherwise it can be life threatening.”
Before embarking, Émilie had been making music in various forms for years but released her debut album, Seim, as Quinquis last year, merging simmering synths, enveloping ambient and songs rooted in Breton folklore (where the pair are from). Yann has been releasing music for decades, initially known for soundtracking films and plays before settling into more electronic and experiential music. An upcoming box set, Kerber Complete, takes his 2021 album Kerber, built on modular synthesis and sampling, and offers up four versions, including a solo piano rendition and remixes.
The pair also work together. “The idea is to collaborate while on tour,” says Yann. “So not only playing shows together but to make music out at sea.” Their sailboat tour has taken them from their home island of Ushant to the Faroe and Shetland Islands, as well as Ireland and Wales. On board, there’s three bedroom cabins, bunk beds, and a lounge area. Card games are played over the dining room table, plants hang in the kitchen, and fresh coffee is brewed on the stove. It’s homely, like a caravan at sea.
Although it’s not all relaxing and enjoying the sea breeze. Routing is tricky. Due to tides they recently had to forgo a planned stop and sailed for four days straight, taking it in turns to sleep in two hour shifts while the other kept look out. “It’s intense but you get into a rhythm,” says Émilie. “Two hours is about the limit of being outside in the cold in the middle of the night. Any longer and it really gets in your bones.”
They dock for three days in Liverpool where I join them for a performance each night. The first is on a beautiful sunny afternoon, Yann and Émilie sip beers in the garden of a former Brazilian consulate as their son runs around playing with other children. The vast house is now home to 15 people, many of whom are musicians and artists operating studios – they use their enormous living room to put on pay-what-you-can gigs on Sunday afternoons, followed by a home-cooked curry.
It’s a lovely atmosphere. People drink red wine, a newborn baby naps, and about 50 people sit hodgepodge in the sprawling living room as the pair play on the floor, concocting an improvised live accompaniment to the sailing documentary Damien’s Journey. Drones and subtle electronic melodies ring out as Émilie reads out passages from a book on the same sailing expedition. Yann plays his violin intensely slowly; this scratchy approach extracting a tense, textural friction that aligns with the violent thrash of the waves. Followed by a set of tender jazz-folk from local outfit the Hermit, the pair seem incredibly content to be playing such intimate gigs. “These are 100% the kind of places we wanted to play,” smiles Émilie afterwards.
The decision to start touring via sailboat was triggered by a 2021 US tour. They were existing on sleeper buses and passing through cities without forging any meaningful connections. They recoiled at sitting outside venues for hours on end with the bus engine spewing out emissions in order to have the air con on; costs and attitudes – such as ultimatums from crew demanding to be flown first class or they wouldn’t join the tour – left a sour taste. “Everything was about money,” says Yann, as we sit in the priest’s office at a church the following day. “We thought: maybe there is a way to do things differently. The sea is the connection between all these places, so we started sailing.”
The pair trained hard. “We spent more of the year [2022] on water than we did on land,” laughs Émilie. They started to imagine a touring life that looked different and came up with an eight-part manifesto for their 2023 tour. “We will resist routine and explore uncharted territories in our music and performances,” reads one point, while another states, “we will challenge the capitalist norms that commodify artistic expression and threaten our environment, advocating for an alternative perspective that supports communal efforts, empathy and wellbeing.”
It is a thought that is seemingly catching on. Coldplay are on a renewable energy tour and songwriter Damien Rice has also been touring via sailboat. But of course, simply buying a boat, scaling back operations, slowing things down, and embracing low key shows is not a viable option for many artists – it’s a luxury afforded by an already successful career. But they do view it as being practical. “It’s smaller venues and smaller fees but also much less cost,” says Émilie. “So it balances out.”
In an attempt to “prioritise active listening and interaction with our audience” the pair have been playing unconventional spaces. Along the way they have taken in communes, beaches and gardens. “I don’t want to play pianos in big venues but I will play in pubs,” says Yann, who that night plays a stunning piano performance in the church to about 100 people. “It means the gig becomes part of our lives instead of living to do gigs.”
Aside from re-thinking touring from an environmental and community perspective, it is also allowing Yann to stretch out creatively and shake off the endless association of Amélie – a project he describes as having had “more of a negative impact than positive” and resulted in him refusing to pick up an accordion again for some time. It’s been liberating to perform without a sense of expectation. “It’s priceless,” he says. “In the Shetland Islands I played under a gazebo in the street. Just a really crappy piano at two in the afternoon. I love that because it’s so genuine and pure.”
The following night, the pair embrace gurgling synths and throbbing sub-bass at the Liverpool club venue, 24 Kitchen St, with performances that shift from ambient to rave and back again. There are baffled fans and several walkouts – “it’s just noise” one complains on the way out – but the pair seem genuinely thrilled to be experimenting and touring on their own terms. “Autonomy is so important,” says Émilie. “To be the engine yourself.” The pair are going to push this as far as they can and are already eying up sailing to America. “The future is slow touring,” says Yann. “It’s more sustainable in every sense of the word. The whole world is so focused on money but instead we want to focus on sharing our music.”
• Seim is out now. Kerber Complete is out on 15 September, both via Mute.
