Book and children music

Soundtracks for children books and music with my children.

Our new year song for 2023!

Freely adapted from Ritchie Vallens' La Bamba.

Our greeting song for 2022. On a spell by Mary Poppins, of course…

Happy new year 2020!

Home-made lyrics (loosely inspired by the Fabulous Troubadours), pandeiros, kavals, triangle and bass. 

La grande école: cover

La grande école: cover

Text: Sandra Troise Dubreuil,
Drawings: Eleonora Roba,
Music: Victor A. Stoichita

After Je suis un super-héros qui court très vite et qui fait de la patisserie, another adventure of Chou, Zouzou and Patatina. Zouzou’s mother explains to Zouzou that Patatina can’t come with her at school. Patatina has been eavesdropping on their conversation. Out of despair, she imagines a plan to turn Zouzou away from school…

The text was read by Blanche Troise Dubreuil and Clément Dubreuil. I set it to music for the companion CD. Listen to it below.

The book can be ordered from most (French) bookstores, on fnac.com, amazon.fr or directly on the editor’s website.

 

Happy New Year 2019!

Home-made lyrics set to a Romani tune ("Sandala").

No bœuf was harmed during the shooting.

Super-héros: cover

Super-héros: cover
This is a book for young kids, about gender roles (being a super-hero vs. cooking really well).

Text: Sandra Troise Dubreuil

Illustrations: Eleonora Roba

Music: Estelle Amy de la Bretèque and Victor A. Stoichita

The text was read by Blanche Troise Dubreuil and Clément Dubreuil. Estelle and I made it into a soundtrack.

You can listen to the soundtrack below.

The book can be ordered at your local library or directly on the editor’s website.

 

Trois petits pas sur le côté,
Trois petits pas de l’autre côté,
J’avance, j’avance et je me réveille,
J’avance toujours du bon pied.

Featuring Estelle, Arthur, Martin & myself. Adapted from a tune by les Ours du Scorff.

Martin joined us on 24th of February 2017!

Lyrics and tune adapted from a popular Russian song. Estelle (voice), Victor (voice & piano), Arthur (comments), and a couple nice koloboks.

May your stars shine happy too!

Tune and lyrics adapted from a traditional Greek song. Voice (Estelle), bouzouki (me) and special comments (Arthur).

Recorded and mixed in Ardour, subbed in Aegisub, rendered on Openshot and Avidemux.

Aka happy new year !

 

The tune and lyrics are from Cheburashka, the soviet anime movie (original version here).

Our greetings card for 2015. Sang by Estelle, Arthur and myself, featuring Pole the Monkey (tchik-tchik), Sophie the Giraffe (pouët-pouët) and Micha the Polar Bear (clong-clong). All sampled and recorded in Ardour. Image editing done in Inkscape.

The song is a cover of a famous tune by the Russian Band Цветы (Flowers). Цветы was considered "underground" in soviet times. Some of its recordings were even prohibited in the 1980’s. Not that this particular tune has anything subversive about it. It’s more on the boyscout side of the band’s repertoire (a side which most "underground" groups in communist regimes also have — at least the ones which managed to survive).

If you search for the first verse on Youtube you’ll probably find a recent performance of the song by the band, who grew old (and quite bland) in the meantime. But you can also hear other lovely renditions of it, such as this one, by the red army choir.

So… be happy in 2015!

Мы желаем счастья вам
We wish you happiness

Счастья в этом мире большом
A lot of happiness in this big world

Как солнце по утрам
Like the morning sun

Пусть оно заходит в дом.
May it enter your house

Мы желаем счастья вам
We wish you happiness

И оно должно быть таким
May it be so

Когда ты счастлив сам
When you are happy

Счастьем поделись с другим.
You share it with others

Estelle gave birth to our son Arthur on 7th of August 2014. It was a rainy day in Nanterre, but for us such a happy one!… We decided to put up a short musical clip to announce the good news to the world.

We’ve had a lot of fun doing it. For those interested, here is the “making of”.