"My ship of stone, tonight I came as a passer-by. Yet I gave you everything, my joy, my love, my freedom. I feel like singing, dancing, laughing like in the old times." -Jacqueline Thibault (from 'Mon vaisseau de Pierre,' a tribute to the Hérouville castle)
Jacqueline Thibault (Laurence Vanay) often worked for other artists at the legendary Chateau d'Hérouville studio as arranger, keyboardist, co-composer, and assistant sound engineer. Between sessions she sometimes managed to record her own music. Several years after her two acknowledged masterpieces, "Galaxies" and "Evening Colours," she was able to bring together the tracks for "La Petite Fenetre" (The Little Window). As the 1970's ended, trouble with the Chateau finances meant that again it was impossible for her to present her work to interested record labels. Instead, "I worked in another recording studio in Paris for fashionable artists," she said, "and I managed after a time to resume and complete my unfinished songs." By that time, the French record companies were not interested in instrumental music anymore. The recordings therefore found themselves asleep on Parisian shelves, pending potential better days. Sublime compositions: unique, melancholic and very powerful.
