Music News

Jean Claude Vannier – shares “Il y avait des éléphants (There Were Elephants)”

Ipecac is honoured to release the new album from legendary musician, composer and arranger, Jean Claude Vannier. Jean Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines, out on Feb 14th, 2025 is a playful album of beautiful reveries composed on mandolin and accordion, that are both poetic and unrestrained. Today, the jaunty and whimsical new track “Il y avait des éléphants (There Were Elephants)” is shared.

For the last pre-release single from the album, Jean Claude reflects on this collaboration and composing music specifically for mandolin for the first time.

“I’d always dreamt of writing for a mandolin orchestra – the instrument’s tremors seemed to me to be just the thing to showcase romantic and sentimental melodies. I met Vincent Beer Demander through a mutual friend who was a sound engineer in a recording studio. Vincent is a mandolin teacher at the Marseilles Conservatoire, where everything is mandolin: small, large, low and high pitched, and the family also plays mandolin: his two boys and his wife seem to be devoted to the mandolin. Vincent travels the world playing Neapolitan songs, Italian concertos, jazz, contemporary music, baroque music and his own compositions, etc.

I’m delighted to be working with my friend Vincent Beer Demander and writing melodies for this orchestra.”

Jean Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines track listing:
01 – Moi, ma mandoline (Me, my mandolin)
02 – Comme les enfants savent aimer (How children know to love) [listen]
03 – La 2CV disparaît au coin de la rue (The 2CV disappears around the corner)
04 – Perdue dans la cité (Lost in the city) [listen]
05 – Il y avait des éléphants (There were elephants) [listen]
06 – À cause de mes problèmes (Because of my troubles)
07 – Une séance photo sous les arcades (A photoshoot under the arcades)
08 – Belle à pleurer (Beautiful enough to cry over)
09 – Danse des maillots de bain (Swimsuit dance)
10 – Nos regards se sont croisés (Our eyes crossed)
11 – La 2CV rouillée (The rusty 2CV) [listen]
12 – Un petit bout de verre cassé (A small piece of broken glass)
13 – Les feux arrière de l’ambulance (Ambulance taillights)