Biography
La Maison Tellier originated in Normandie during 2004, when Helmut Tellier and Raoul Tellier—otherwise known as Yannick Marais and Sebastien Miel—established the project and were soon augmented by a broad circle of additional players. This expanded collective styled itself as an extended fictitious family, its title nodding toward Guy de Maupassant’s short story of the same name. Employing an assortment of acoustic stringed instruments that ranged from banjo to Dobro, the group forged a distinctive folk-rock approach performed in both French and English. Although the songs drew upon assorted, predominantly American sources, these elements fused into a coherent and immediately identifiable whole. The band’s first, self-titled long-player appeared in 2006 and already encapsulated the thematic preoccupations that would define their work. Among its tracks was a streamlined reinterpretation of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name,” which, together with the song “La Chambre Rose” and support from Radio Nova, brought the ensemble initial notice. Their follow-up, Second Souffle, arrived the next year and continued in the same ironic folk-rock manner.
Singles
