Funny How? Chassol

• 1 In Comedy (and in Music) 03:14
• 2 Rude Crude Lude 04:53
• 3 True Story 01:17
• 4 Laughter (Is the Best Medecine) 03:17
• 5 In Comedy (and in Music) II 01:37
• 6 Punchlines 02:08
• 7 Punchlines II 02:39
• 8 How Do You Write A Joke? 01:22
• 9 What Is Stand-Up? 04:33
• 10 A First Lady 08:39
• 11 Marina 01:17
• 12 Stand-Up Like Richard 03:20
• 13 A Raunchy Comedian 09:16
• 14 Dulce 05:01
• 15 Killed by Police 03:13
• 16 L.O.L. 03:26
• Total Runtime 59:12

Info for Funny How?

Funny How? is Christophe Chassol’s fifth album. While it builds directly on his work on “Ultrascores,” it also marks a turning point: a more contemporary sound, richer songwriting, and more explicitly political and social themes make Funny How? his most accomplished album to date. It’s also his most accessible: inspired by American stand-up comedy, Funny How? sounds like a joyful mix of all the musical styles that inspire the artist: soul, jazz, rap, musicals…

Thus, throughout the album, major stand-up figures such as Dave Chappelle, Marina Franklin, Dulcé Sloan, and Tiny Thickemz appear alongside emerging comedians filmed in smaller comedy clubs, composing a moving portrait of the new American scene. Drawing on archival footage and sequences shot for the project in New York and Chicago, and true to his principle of harmonizing reality, Chassol reveals its hidden score, replaying and developing it throughout a captivating approach.

A major work, a choral, political, and deeply musical narrative emerges in the process.

Christophe Chassol, keyboards, flutes, synth bass & vocals
Mathieu Edouard, drums
Philippe Bussonnet, bass
Ala.ni, vocals
Clément Daquin, additional instruments and programming
Guests:
Fred Yonnet, harmonica
D-Composed String Quartet
Chicago Choir
Tiny Cupboard Comedians

Christophe Chassol
is a composer with an atypical background and equally unique composition methods. Combining documentary film and musical composition, he captures his encounters with a camera, edits the footage into visual motifs onto which he adds his own chord sequences. He calls this method “ultrascoring”.

“We go out and film places and people... They talk to us. Every sound in the camera becomes musical raw material. I make loops of the images, stretch them, lengthen them... Then I sew the movie together with the chords”.

Born in 1976, Christophe Chassol entered music academy at age 4 and studied there for 16 years. He secured a grant from Boston's Berklee College of Music, where he graduated in 2002. For the next 15 years, he composed for cinema, television and advertising.

In subsequent years he performed regularly with French pop artists such as the band Phoenix and Sébastien Tellier. More recently, Chassol has worked with American singers Frank Ocean and Solange, contributing to their respective albums.

Chassol is also active in contemporary art, collaborating with artists Sophie Calle, Laurie Anderson and more recently Xavier Veilhan at the Venice Biennale in July 2017. His work Cuba in Cohen, created for the occasion, is currently exhibited at Montréal's Musée d'Art Contemporain.

This album contains no booklet.