Emmanuelle Parrenin – Maison Rose – Expanded Edition (Souffle Continu Records, 2022 reissue)
Maison Rose, originally released in 1977 and now reissued with two previously unheard pieces, returns like a lantern relit, its glow revealing how folk tradition and studio experimentation can share the same breath. Despite all the years, the charming progressive folk sounds of Emmanuelle Parrenin’s Maison Rose remain a haven: mysterious, devotional, quietly daring.
The story begins in Fromentel, Normandy, inside a farm turned recording sanctuary by producer Jacques Denjean, the studio veteran who worked with Dionne Warwick and Françoise Hardy and once sang with the Double Six. Those walls had already witnessed two striking Albert Marcoeur records, and the air seems to have remembered. Parrenin stepped into that setting with songs gathered from the countryside, heirlooms, carried in her voice. At the console stood her partner and engineer, Bruno Menny, who previously engaged in electroacoustic experiments.
Parrenin sings with an unfussy humility, melodies curled like lullabies meant to shoo nightmares back under the bed. Menny frames those lines with arrangements such as small percussive details, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, and Denis Gasser’s guitar.
One track, “Topaze” moves with a steady, forward thrust; the drums summon a Motorik insistence that nods to Krautrock band Faust. Elsewhere, rhythm thins to a heartbeat, then returns with a start. Moments of near-silence feel as crafted as the crescendos, proof of a team that understands restraint as a kind of virtuosity.
Buy Maison Rose.