First Listen: Yann Tiersen, 'Infinity' — npr.org

hide captionYann Tiersen's new album, Infinity, comes out May 20. Yann Tiersen's new album, Infinity, comes out May 20. In interviews conducted with Brittany-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Yann Tiersen since the release of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 2001 film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain — or, as American audiences know it, Amélie — you can almost hear him bristle at the thought of being labeled a "soundtrack composer." Coming from punk roots and influenced by the likes of Nirvana, Joy Division and Einstürzende Neubauten, the eclectic musician defies such easy categorization. Still, the vibrant, ecstatic, moody music he'd performed on accordion, sampler, toy piano, harpsichord, electric guitar and violin across four albums in the mid-'90s lent itself perfectly to the fantastical film's soundtrack. As Jeunet once said of the multifaceted musician, "The hard part was making a selection, because all Tiersen's tracks worked with the film's images."

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