INFORMATION
Tindersticks have had a long and fruitful relationship with French filmmaker Claire Denis dating back to the band's early years.

The group's first soundtrack for Denis, Nénette Et Boni (1996), was also their third album, following two eponymous and now legendary Tindersticks full-lengths in the early 90s. Five more soundtracks have followed, tracking faithfully alongside Denis' own critically- acclaimed trajectory, marking one of the more fertile, consistent and resonant relationships between a director and a group of musicians in contemporary cinema.

The set gathers all six of the Claire Denis soundtracks written and performed by Tindersticks or their members; Stuart A. Staples for L'Intrus and Dickon Hinchliffe for Vendredi Soir, alongside four others credited to the full band: Nénette et Boni, Trouble Every Day, 35 Rhums and White Material.

Four of the six soundtracks are previously unreleased – all of the film scores since 2002 are issued in this set for the first time. It is a subtle, beautiful body of work and an integral part of the Tindersticks oeuvre.


PACKAGING NOTES
5xCD / 5x180gLP BOX SET

Each CD or 180gLP is housed in a cardstock duotone print sleeve with silver spot inks (and silver varnished interiors for the CD wallets).

The five discs (L'Intrus and Vendredi Soir are compiled on a single disc) are housed in a foil-embossed double-wall slip box with custom die-cut window, hand-made from 550gsm/25pt all-black brushed-finish uncoated board.

Includes a 64-page perfect-bound booklet with 30 pages of colour film stills and an essay by Michael Hill (in English and translated to French).

5X180gLP edition includes two posters. LPs pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal (Germany). LP edition limited to 1000 copies.

All papers and boards are 100% recycled or FSC-certified with recycled content.


REVIEWS
“The history of cinema has been replete with successful partnerships between director and composer: Hitchcock and Herrmann; Spielberg and Williams, Lynch and Badalamenti. There’s even a Wikipedia page devoted to such collaborations. Yet one fellowship overlooked by the Wiki league is that between fearless French cinematic impressionist Denis and her loyal band of care-worn Nottingham craftsmen. Since a chance meeting in Paris in 1995, Tindersticks have been at Denis’ service, writing close-miked chamber soundtracks of rain-pattered mystery and soft-voiced melancholy. Collected together, the fear might have been that the Tindersticks sound would be found wanting. Yet from 1996’s Nénette et Boni to 2009’s White Material here is a sound in evolution…always pulsing with the same intimate warmth as Denis’ films.”

MOJO – 5/5 STARS


“Fine work lies within. Staples’ score for 2004’s L’Intrus builds tension with jazzy percussion and metallic echo-soaked guitar, while 2009’s White Material is sombre and stately, all droning accordians and wandering flute.”

UNCUT – 4/5 STARS


“Tindersticks early on showed interest in orchestration, and the band has developed that forte magically, yet ruminatively and cautiously, on these films scores. Like Denis' art films, which rigorously avoid sentimentality, these scores never succumb to pretty lushness. They always keep their introspective melancholy nearby.”

BLURT


“This box, with its extensive notes that offer a narrative history of the band's work with Denis, is a nicely assembled and welcome addition to the Tindersticks discography. It's not a casual purchase, but the band's most dedicated fans and soundtrack heads will be thankful for its creation.”

PITCHFORK

WORDS FROM STUART A. STAPLES


Sometime in Paris '95, I thought it was La Cigale, she says it was the Bataclan, I'm not sure.

That is where we met anyway, one of those places, after a concert. She was writing the screenplay for Nénette et Boni and something in our song "My Sister" had clicked with her, she asked us if we would like to make the music for the film. We had film scoring pretensions, soundtrack music had always been a thing of David's from when we met way back (though we could barely play, we had dreams).

It seemed the right next move for us, it fitted with the energy and flow of our band. We had this thing about Miles' Ascenseur pour l'échafaud. Passing through Paris he stopped off at the studio with the band and recorded the score right there and then, in a day, watching the film for the first time and reacting musically. Seemed like a good place to start.

I suppose the essence was there, that's how we began, and after a few fumbling months we delivered the music for Nénette et Boni, nervously.

That's how it all started, maybe we just got on, had some kind of understanding; we have never really talked about it. I was told she said in an interview that we understand the films before she does; maybe that's true in some way, but I think she was just being gracious.

Approaching each film has always asked us to step into an unknown, stretch ourselves and do things we did not think we were able. At the end we always feel changed in some way. This has fed into all our other music and is a contributing factor to why we're still struggling to catch our ideas after all these years, still frustrated and fascinated in equal measure.

Other people have asked us to score their films, but we always reached a point where we realised that the freedom and conversation Claire affords (and expects from) us is not there, and then it becomes something different, making music for money - something we're well aware we have never been very good at.