The Accordion

[Emma Raducanu]

Does anyone have any accordion music to recommend? I like songs that sound ultra-Parisian and semi romantic but wouldn't know where to start trying to find that sort of stuff. The accordion doesn't seem to feature in music I know because it can be pretty crap but when it is ratatouille style, it is lovely and nostalgic.

[Maximash]

Check Yann Tiersen's Amelie soundtrack, its crawling with accordions.

[Ginyard]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/France-French-Cafe-Accordion-Music/dp/B0000255AB

Check out Ástor Piazzolla's music. Its pretty bandoneon based but its riddled with wonderful squeezebox character.

[Emma Raducanu]

Thanks both. Ginyard, I like how if you want to download that album, it costs £16 instead of the £4 it costs for the CD.

[Ginyard]

Yeah, cunts.

Worse though, sometimes, when you have theme and variation music, because each variation is separated for easy access it can cost a quid just for 20 secs of music. Dumb arses. Someone should have worked out how to make the selection more intelligent instead of assuming that each track must mean a separate piece of music.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Yeah - tango is the first style of music that springs to mind - with Colombian Cumbia music shortly thereafter (check out the nifty sample on 'Heater', one of those tunes I kept hearing everywhere last summer).  Gotan Project do the slightly-sanitised chill-out version, but for the real deal check out some Carlos Gardel or - as already mentioned by Ginyard - Astor Piazolla.  Forget his name, but that guy that did the soundtrack to Babel is probably also worth checking out.

It's all over Scottish music like a rash as well, though sounds a lot less Parisian in that context, bringing to mind instead the sound of Glasgow's Riverside Club on a Friday night.  Some Jimmy Shand will get your party rocking...

[thehungerartist]

Check Yann Tiersen's Amelie soundtrack, its crawling with accordions.

This ^^^

Here's a couple of his other accordiony tracks

http://www.sendspace.com/file/z9r94w

http://www.sendspace.com/file/5yodqe

[NoSleep]

Anything by Univers Zero, who take the accordion, and other unlikely instrumentation, to places they have never been before. They've even managed that rare feat - creating a genre of their own: Chamber Rock. Start with Ceux Du Dehors and sip slowly.

Or for something a little more jolly, albeit a squeezebox rather than accordion, anything featuring Flaco Jiminez (who's worked with Ry Cooder amongst others).

[Emma Raducanu]

I'm laying back, sipping coffee listening to French Cafe Accordion Music with my eyes closed. And I'm there, in Parc des Princes. Albert has just ridden passed on his bike with a loaf of bread under his arm. Aahh this is the life.

[The Masked Unit]

[youtube=425,350]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5AfTl5Vg73A[/youtube]

Posted for a laugh, ended up feeling like a paedo.

[greencalx]

17 Hippies, a German band with what sound like East-European folk influences (possibly the worst description evarr) has a lot of accordion action going on.