Five years after the singer’s death, an album recorded in 1980 was released. Entitled The Fireit comes out this Friday, November 1st and would never have seen the light of day without the relentlessness of a fan.
Marie Laforêt wanted this album to be forgotten, her biggest fan decided to bring it to life. Five years after the singer’s death, the opus in question is released on Friday 1is november. Six months after the singer’s death at the age of 80, Yohann Masson, a fan who became a friend of the singer, released with Universal a first complete compilation composed of 18 CDs and 377 tracks, including 28 previously unreleased. But an album recorded in 1980, never released, is missing from the lot. The 39-year-old from Avignon, who evokes « a truly cursed, forbidden, stolen, found, lost record », fought for years to find it, with success.
The album has eleven songs, four of which were composed by Gilbert Montagné. Nine other texts were written by Daniel Boublil specifies The Parisian. One of the titles, The Fire – which gives its name to the album – has already been revealed on YouTube. Four other new releases will be revealed. The singer has already performed them in playback or live on French and Swiss television, without ever burning them on disc.
At the time, Marie Laforêt, real name Maïténa Doumenach, was opposed to the release of this album. She recorded it in the summer of 1980, thirteen years after the release of her first 45 rpm: The harvest of lovewritten by Danyel Gérard. Why did this album cause so much trouble for the singer? ? « She was at a turning point in her life and had been forced to make choices »underlines his daughter Déborah Kahn-Sriber on BFMTV. « The album may not have been released because she had to make a choice between her life as a writer and her life as a singer. »she continues. « She wanted something different. She was in the middle of writing a book. She wanted to change her life, to settle in Switzerland. But also to start a career as a gallery owner and auctioneer ».
His son, Jean-Mehdi Azuelos, remembers attending the recording during the summer of 1980. « I was twelve years old, on school holidays and living with her. She spent her life in the studio. I have rarely seen my mother so fulfilled. She who often complained about what she did, about the people she worked with, was joyful, full of energy »he explains to Parisian . Faced with his mother’s incomprehensible decision, he nevertheless tries to explain his choice. “We didn’t expect Marie Laforêt to be in a pop and fun register, perhaps that’s what scared her »he considers.
Recording missing in burglary
Kept in the safe of Swiss producer Pierre-Richard Muller, who financed the recording, the soundtracks had an extraordinary destiny. “A year or two after recording I was robbed and stolen along with the rest »confides Pierre-Richard Muller, still at the Parisian. « By crazy luck, a municipal police officer found them in a trash bag left on a sidewalk a few days later, just before the garbage collectors came by. My name was on the boxes, he brought them to me. It was miraculous »he adds.
“I wanted to find it so she could listen to it again. »
Yohann Masson.
Thirty years pass and the soundtracks remain cloistered at the bottom of a drawer. The singer’s wish to draw a line under this recording seems to have come true. This is without counting on Yohann Masson’s desire to transmit the singer’s legacy in its entirety. He has “harassed the producer for 10 years” so that he can find the famous tapes. “ And then, in March 2022, by chance, he found the five multi-track tapes »says the opinionated fan. « I want this music to live »insists Déborah Kahn-Sriber, who finds « magic » to hear his mother’s voice again.
Before bidding: « Today, there are fewer and fewer people who know about it. I want people to know that she exists, that she existed and that she did great things. ». The three children heirs of the singer all contributed, with Yohann Masson and two sound engineers, to the creation of this album entitled The Feu. « It’s a very successful album, which could have had a big impact on his career »assures Jean-Mehdi Azuelos.
