Review
Genre and Mood
Wax Tailor’s Que Sera - Phonovisions Symphonic Version takes a trip-hop track built from old records and gives it to an orchestra. Echoes hears “a film noir quality” in his music, and this version leans into it: downtempo, nostalgic and mysterious, and theatrical in the literal sense, since it was recorded in a theatre.
Song Summary
The original Que Sera was one of Wax Tailor’s first releases, a 2004 single and then the second track of his 2005 debut album, Tales of the Forgotten Melodies, which samples Hitchcock films and recordings by Nina Simone and Doris Day. Echoes calls it “his adaptation of Doris Day’s rendition” of the song from The Man Who Knew Too Much. Ten years later he re-orchestrated it for Phonovisions Symphonic Orchestra, a project of 27 tracks from his four albums, rearranged for 35 musicians and a 17-voice choir.
Musical Breakdown
The sources describe the concerts and the project, not this track section by section, so the parts below stay general.
The Arrangement
MusicBrainz credits Wax Tailor himself as the orchestrator and producer of this version, and he mixed it with Julien Depardieu. The music that was once assembled from records is here written out for players.
The Room
The concerts were filmed over two days at the Théâtre Sébastopol in Lille, with a visual scenography by Pierre Jampy. Echoes found that “the live horns give it a different kind of punch”.
Concepts in Focus
The original Que Sera rests on sampling. Echoes describes Wax Tailor’s sound as “a rollicking smash-up of film dialogue, jazz grooves, John Barry’s suave orchestral aplomb and hip-hop scratching”, and Wikipedia notes his heavy use of samples from old films. Que Sera, Sera, written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, was introduced by Doris Day in Hitchcock’s 1956 film, where she sings it as a signal to her kidnapped son, and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
This recording is an alternate version: the same piece by the same artist, with a different arrangement and sound. Compare it with the 2005 album track and listen for what belongs to the melody and what belonged to the production.
It is also a live recording, made in front of an audience and released as a double CD with a DVD. Echoes recommended watching the DVD first. Boogie Belgique took a similar path from samples to a live band in Boogie Belgique – Forever and Ever.
Artistic Context
Wax Tailor is Jean-Christophe Le Saoût, born in 1975 in Vernon, Normandy, who founded his label Lab’Oratoire in 1998. Phonovisions Symphonic Orchestra marked ten years of his career and was released on 3 November 2014.
Impact and Reception
John Diliberto of Echoes called the project a major statement from Wax Tailor, and Stereofox wrote that it was really impressed by how the tracks had evolved with the orchestra. Play it after the 2005 original, and hear the records turn into a room full of musicians.
