Quizz [Import]

• Track Listing

Singer-songwriter Belle du Berry and multi-instrumentalist David Lewis have been appreciated by an ever-growing audience over the past decade as members of the group Paris Combo. In the mid 90s after a few years in French indie groups & some film work, Belle took her own songs and a passion for gypsy swing and began performing in Parisian cafes. She also performed in a musical cabaret/circus where she met David Lewis, an ex-pat Australian trumpet virtuoso who had been with Manu Dibango for some years. By 2000 Paris Combo were in great shape with 'GOLD' status in France for their 2nd album and 200,000 sales worldwide. In 2009 after 5 very successful albums, the 2 principals embarked on this new project: Quizz is not a Paris Combo album as such, even though the couple had written most of the group's repertoire. From the outset, one realizes that the upbeat feeling is still there, but the subjectmatter of the songs covers much deeper concerns. Belle du Berry still has her brass-tinted voice, reminiscent of Eartha Kitt and say Francoise Hardy, David Lewis plays every trumpet imaginable! The songs unfold with a clever lyrical mix of French & English, an esoteric melding of cultures and musical influences as if in a post-modern chanson cabaret, yielding a hybrid that while it relies on retro sources comes across as contemporary - neither contrived nor forced.